India were the hot favourites to win the Asian Championships 2024.
But the major surprise of the tournament was the unexpected finalist China, who made it to the final after defeating Pakistan in the semis.
The hot favourites ultimately retained their Asian Champions Trophy crown with a 1-0 win over the lowest-ranked team in the tournament in Moqi.
But the differences in the rankings between the two teams were not visible in the match as India came up against a well-organised Chinese defence and the
main credit to their defence goes to none other than their goalkeeper Wang Weihao, who was the sole reason the contest ended only with 1-0.
He made a couple of excellent saves from Sukhjeet Singh and Manpreet Singh from close range, and also made excellent saves from Raj Kumar Pal and
Nilakanta Sharma.
China from the get go started to put pressure on India, and even gave India a couple of scares in their defence in the third quarter when India gave away a
couple of needless penalty corners, but Krishan Pathak, who took up the mantle after PR Sreejesh, was up to the task, repelling whatever came his way.
India then would restart the third quarter, and finally they broke the deadlock in the 51st minute with Harmanpreet making a fine run into the defence of China and setting up Jugraj, who made the decisive strike to seal the win for
India.
With this win, India became the most successful team in the tournament’s history with a record-extending five titles.
India retained the trophy for the second consecutive edition. India had previously achieved back-to-back titles in 2016 and 2018.
Hockey India also announced a cash prize of INR 3 lakhs for each player and INR
1.5 lakhs for each support staff member.
Written by Naman
