There was a phase, as soon as the second half began, when Indonesia managed to hold India off from scoring. This was the longest phase in the Pool A match on Monday, wherein the defending champions didn’t score. But that interval, unfortunately for the Indonesians, lasted not more than 10 minutes. The men in blue were ruthless whilst hammering the hosts 17-0 in their first match at the Asian Games, the country’s biggest win in the event’s history.
With this win, they topped Pool A, going ahead of Japan, who’d thrashed Sri Lanka 11-0 before the India-Indonesia contest.
The 17-0 win is also India’s best record at the Asian Games with their previous best being 12-0 win against Bangladesh in 1982.
Within a minute of the game’s start, came the first goal. After Sardar Singh’s Penalty Corner was trapped, Rupinder Pal Singh hammered the ball to the goal-keeper’s right. Dea Dwi Permana hardly saw the ball as it thudded into the net.
The second goal took less than two minutes. Rupinder, once again unleashing a penalty corner, hit the chest of an Indonesian defender, earning a penalty stroke for India. He converted that to double the lead.
Dilpreet Singh, one of the three players to score a hat-trick on Monday, got his first goal in the sixth minute off a penalty corner. His second and third came in the second (a field goal) and third (off a penalty corner) quarters, respectively.
All of Simranjeet Singh’s goals, in the 12th, 37th and 52nd minutes, were field goals. And, teammate Mandeep Singh, too, scored three field goals as the Indian attackers bamboozled the Indonesian defence.
Akashdeep Singh, SV Sunil, Vivek Prasad and Lalit Kumar Upadhyay were the rest of the goal-scorers of the night.
India had a whopping 40 shots on goals, as compared to the solitary shot in the second half by Indonesia. They converted six of their 11 penalty corner opportunities. Despite Indonesia deploying all their players in their circle, they couldn’t stop the Indians from running them over.
India will next take on Hong Kong on Wednesday.
