Asian Champions Trophy / India became Asian champion for the fourth time, defeating Malaysia 4-3 in the final

Asian Champions Trophy: The Indian hockey team has become the Asian champion for the fourth time. Team India defeated Malaysia 4-3 in the thrilling final held in Chennai on Saturday 12th August. In this way, Team India won this title for the fourth time without losing any match in the entire tournament. Team India had earlier won this title in 2018. India's star in the final was Akashdeep Singh, who scored the last goal for the team. The Indian team, captained by Harmanpreet Singh, played 7 matches in the entire tournament and won only 6. Only one match was drawn.

The chants of Vande Mataram fill the stadium after India comes back into the game. #HockeyIndia #IndiaKaGame #HACT2023 pic.twitter.com/Mn5ccxSG4A

— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) August 12, 2023

In this tournament, which has been going on for the last one week at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium in Chennai, the dominance of the Indian team was continuing from the beginning. He even faced Malaysia in the league round before the final. Then Team India unilaterally washed it away. Despite that 5-0 victory of the Indian team, the final was expected to be difficult and it turned out to be so. Malaysia kept Team India on the backfoot for a long time.

We Are the Champions!🏆
Here's a glimpse of the unforgettable matches 💙

🇮🇳 India 4-3 Malaysia 🇲🇾#HockeyIndia #IndiaKaGame #HACT2023@CMO_Odisha @CMOTamilnadu @asia_hockey @FIH_Hockey @IndiaSports @Media_SAI @sports_odisha pic.twitter.com/nosHqD3o6z

— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) August 12, 2023

India on the backfoot after a good start

The beginning of the match was very thorny and neither of the two teams were seen in the mood of defensive game. Attacks continued but India got its first breakthrough when Jugraj Singh scored from a penalty corner in the 9th minute. Malaysia, however, did not take much time to equalize and Abu Kamal scored for him in the 14th minute. Malaysia then scored two goals in the second quarter to take a 3-1 lead. He scored the Indian goal in the 18th and 28th minute on the penalty corner.

Tied in the third quarter

In the third quarter, the Indian players came back brilliantly and tried to score goals with the best plan. Indian players performed unitedly in this quarter. This benefited them at the last minute when Harmanpreet Singh scored a goal to make it 3-2. Then in the same minute, Gurjant Singh scored an excellent goal while counter attacking and gave the score equal to 3-3. This goal laid the foundation for the victory of Team India. In the fourth quarter for the Indian team, Akashdeep Singh scored a goal and gave the Indian team a 4-3 lead. This lead was maintained till the end and Team India won the title.

Return in 1 minute

Due to the mistakes made in the defense, Team India had to struggle a lot to come back and at one time it seemed that Malaysia would beat them. India did not get any success in 14 minutes of the third quarter. Then in the last minute, Team India made a thrilling comeback. First, the team got a penalty, which was converted by captain Harmanpreet Singh (45 minutes). Then in a few seconds, Gurjant Singh (45 minutes) brought the team on par with a beautiful field goal.

Akashdeep's finishing touch

Now only the last 15 minutes of the game was left and both the teams increased the pace of attack but no one got success. Just 4 minutes before the completion of 60 minutes, Akashdeep Singh (56 minutes) scored the ball in Malaysia's goal with a tremendous strike and gave the team a decisive lead. After this, India did not give any chance to Malaysia in the remaining four minutes and won the title.