Asian Games, Hockey: India overwhelm Pakan but 10-2 scoreline reflects no contest between men vs boys | Asian-games News

Pakan’s 7-1 victory over India in the men’s hockey final of the 1982 Delhi Asian Games is considered a seminal moment in the storied rivalry between the two neighbours. It shows how far the team from across the border has fallen in the sport that they once dominated for decades that the 10-2 hammering they suffered at Hangzhou on Saturday won’t necessarily be talked about in those terms.It was India’s biggest win over Pakan, but it almost seemed routine, such has been the one-sided nature of the rivalry in recent times. On several occasions during the contest, if at all it could be called that, it played out as men versus boys. India seemingly able to score whenever they ventured into the opposition circle, earning penalty corners and even penalty strokes whenever they wished.
For the record, skipper Harmanpreet helped himself to four goals, while Varun Kumar struck twice. Mandeep Singh, Sumit, Shamsher Singh and Lalit Kumar Upadhyay also got on the score sheet. Pakan reduced the margin somewhat through goals Muhammad Khan and Abdul Rana.

Hear it from the man himself 🤩, the Captain of 🇮🇳 Men’s #Hockey team, @13harmanpreet , sharing his heart out with SAI, after a ravishing victory against 🇵🇰 today!
Many congratulations to the team💪🏻👏#AsianGames2022#Cheer4India 🇮🇳#HallaBol#JeetegaBharat#BharatAtAG22… pic.twitter.com/KOJpGHsNIf
— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) September 30, 2023
In the bigger picture, India – whose main aim at these Games is to seal an automatic berth at next year’s Paris Olympics clinching the gold medal – set down a marker for the matches to come. They play Bangladesh in their final Pool A game, before the more serious stuff of knockout matches.

Anything other than a comprehensive Indian victory would have been quite an unexpected result, and the contrasting trajectories hockey has taken in the two countries suggest that such a lopsided scoreline wasn’t the greatest of surprises, regardless of how oldtimers and hockey romantics reminisce about the golden age of subcontinental hockey. The sport in Pakan has suffered over the last several years, both on and off the turf, to such an extent that they miss out on qualification for the Olympics and World Cups, titles they have won three and four times respectively.
The Pakan Hockey Federation has been known more for financial mismanagement and adminrative wrangling, with teams often reliant on largesse of the government, other entities and Good Samaritans to even participate in overseas tournaments.

A day inked for hory books as #TeamIndia regered it’s biggest win over Pakan #IndPak#HockeyIndia #IndiaKaGame #AsianGames #TeamIndia #HangzhouAsianGames #EnRouteToParis #IndianTeam #SunehraSafar pic.twitter.com/5EyAPZI71T
— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) September 30, 2023
Minutes of the meeting
On Saturday, India didn’t have to wait long to open the scoring. The match was only eight minutes old when Abhishek made a fine run and entered the striking circle from the left side. His pass was deflected into the goal Mandeep.
India chose to start Krishan Bahadur Pathak in goal, instead of the more acclaimed PR Sreejesh, but he thwarted Pakan when they had a penalty corner soon after going behind.
And the save proved to be significant as India doubled their lead almost immediately afterwards when Pakan custodian Akmal Hussain conceded a penalty stroke for Harmanpreet to convert.
Harmanpreet, the team’s chief drag-flicker, then added a third, his sixth goal of the tournament, in the 17th minute via India’s first penalty corner of the match.

Almost unscathed, a Horic win for #TeamIndia 🇮🇳 over Pakan 🇵🇰 as we put 10 past them for the first time EVER!
You wouldn’t script it any other way!
Catch the Women’s team in action tomorrow:📆 1st Oct 1:30 PM 🇮🇳 IND vs KOR 🇰🇷📍Hangzhou, China.📺 Streaming on Sony… pic.twitter.com/YhczBTdLGU
— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) September 30, 2023
Pakan’s attacking forays didn’t get much joy with the Indian defence holding firm. The team coached Muhammad Saeed Khan hardly got a clear shot at the Indian goal in open play.Most Read
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Sreejesh was brought on a bit later and was on hand to save another penalty corner. And when Sumit scored with a reverse hit just moments before half-time to make it 4-0, the match was effectively over as a contest with the margin of the Indian victory becoming the main point of interest.

Things went from bad to worse for Pakan in the second half when they conceded another penalty stroke, which was calmly converted Harmanpreet. The skipper soon made it four goals on the night with another drag-flick to make it half a dozen. Pakan pulled one back but Varun struck soon afterwards to recreate the iconic 7-1 scoreline from 1982, also the previous biggest margin of victory for India over their arch rivals.
But it wasn’t the end of the agony for a thoroughly outclassed Pakan as their pain entered double digits soon afterwards.