The Indian hockey team continues to perform well in the Asia Cup 2025 being played in Rajgir, Bihar. Team India defeated Japan 3–2 in their second pool match. In this match played on 31 August, captain Harmanpreet Singh scored two goals for India. At the same time, Mandeep Singh was successful in scoring a goal.
On the other hand, Kawabe Kosei scored both goals for Japan. Indian goalkeeper Krishna Bahadur Pathak made some great defends against Japan. This was Krishna Bahadur’s 150th international match. Let me tell you, the Indian team defeated China 4-3 in their first match. At the same time, the Indian team will face Kazakhstan on 1 September in their last pool match.
The Indian team made a stormy start and scored two goals in the first quarter. Mandeep Singh scored the best field goal in the fourth minute of the quarter. In the very next minute, Captain Harmanpreet Singh scored a goal on the penalty corner to put the Indian team ahead 2–0. The second quarter was thorny, where both teams could not score any goals. Both teams definitely made opportunities, but could not put the ball in the goal post. The score was 2–0 in India’s favor until Halftime.
In the third quarter, Japan tried to show aggressive games. Saka also got the benefit when Kavabe Kosei scored for Japan to 2–1 in the eighth minute of the quarter. The score ended the end of the third quarter, then India got a penalty quality at the beginning of the fourth quarter, on which captain Harmanpreet Singh scored a goal to score India 3–1. The Japanese team continued to fight even after eating this goal and Kavabe Kosei managed to score about two minutes before the game was over.
In the Asia Cup, the Bharti team is placed in Pool-A along with Japan, China and Kazakhstan. Pool-B has teams from Chinese Taipei, Malaysia, South Korea and Bangladesh. The winning team of the Asia Cup will get a chance to play in next year’s Hockey World Cup. Hockey World Cup is to be played in the Netherlands and Belgium from 14 to 30 August.
