India finished 3rd in the 6th edition of the five-nation Hero Men’s Asian Champions Trophy Hockey’ 2021 beating their traditional sub-continental rivals by 4-3 goals in a 3rd place play-off match at Maulana Bhashani National Stadium here on Wednesday.
After the day’s seven goals thriller, India clinched the bronze medal of the Asian Champions Trophy Hockey’21 after lifting the bronze medal in this year’s Tokyo Olympics.
Earlier, India also defeated Pakistan by 3-1 goals in the round robin league stage of the ongoing meet to finish top of the points table, securing nine points in four matches with three wins and a draw against Korea.
Two joint champions of the last meet in 2018 and the South Asian giants of the Asian Hockey India and Pakistan miserably eliminated from the continental hockey in the semifinals on Tuesday.
Japan emerged as surprise finalists stunning hot favorite India by 5-3 goals while Korea entered the final frustrating Pakistan by 6-5 goals in keenly contested semis.
In the day’s play-off, Harmanpreet Singh, Sumit, Varun Kumar and Akashdeep Singh scored one each for India while Arfraz Khan, Abdul Rana and Nadeem contributed one each for Pakistan.
Indian captain Manpreet Singh was adjudged the player of the match displaying his brilliance in the mid field of the match.
Source: United News of Bangladesh