Asia Cup Hockey | Brilliant India crush Malaysia 6-2; move to top of points table

Akashdeep Singh opened the scoring through a brilliant field goal in the 14th minute to give India 1-0 advantage at the end of the first quarter. After India's failure in converting two penalties in the first quarter, Harmanpreet Singh was able to guide the third PC in the 19th minute to double the lead for India. In the 24th minute of the match, SK Uthappa, combined with Sunil, opened the Malaysian defence, before hitting it hard towards the left corner of the goal box to make it 3-0 for India. 

In the third quarter, Akashdeep made a great run from the right and sliced the defence as well as goal-keeper to pass the ball towards Gurjant Singh - India's only goal scorer from the last match against South Korea - and he made no mistake to make it 4-0 for India. Gurjant again played a huge part in the fifth goal too by making a brilliant solo run from India half on the left flank before releasing a decisive pass towards Sunil, who dived in and tapped the ball inside the opposition goal post to make it 5-0 after three quarters.

After two games each in Super four stage, India are on top with four points followed by Malaysia (three points), Korea (two points) and Pakistan (one point). India will now face arch-rivals Pakistan in the next match on Saturday. As per the rule of the tournament, the top two teams in the stage will play the final and other two will play for third place on Sunday.