Hyderabad, Oct 31: India continued their domination over arch rivals Pakistan with a convincing 3-1 victory in a fast-paced encounter to clinch the gold medal in the men`s hockey of the inaugural Afro-Asian Games here today. The third straight victory over their Asian rivals gave India their second major title in as many months. India had last month defeated Pakistan 4-2 in the final of the Asia Cup in Kuala Lumpur.
Arjun Halappa (7th minute), Len Aiyappa (34th) and Gagan Ajit Singh (56th) scored for the hosts while half back Gazanfar Ali scored a consolation goal for the Pakistanis in the 14th minute.
The Indians, leading 2-1 at half time, sealed the fate of the match in the 56th minute when star forward Gagan Ajit made a probing run into the Pakistani area and slotted home the winner after wrong footing two defenders.
In the first half, both the teams started cautiously trying to get the measure of their opponents.
With the game gaining momentum, India started making a few good moves and were rewarded immediately when Halappa gave a beautiful pass to Deepak Thakur, who was obstructed on the goal mouth with the referee giving India a penalty stroke.
Halappa made no mistake to give India the lead.
But the Pakistani`s came back strongly as they launched a relentless attack on the Indian goal earning two penalty corners in a span of seven minutes. While the first was well saved by Indian custodian Devesh Chauhan, full back Ghazanfar Ali made no mistake in converting the second to restore parity.
The Indians were immediately forced on the back foot when Viren Rasquinha was shown the yellow card for bringing down Rehan Butt. The Pakistani`s tried to take advantage of the one man advantage as they pressurised the Indian defence.
After Rasquinha`s return Indians changed the tempo and earned three penalty corners in quick succession with Len Aiyappa scoring through an indirect conversion with the third in the dying moments of the first half.
Trailing at the break, Pakistan came out firing on all cylinders in second half as their half line created numerous opportunities for the forwards. But the Indian defence led by skipper Dilip Tirkey and Harpal Singh stood firm and showed tremendous resilience to thwart every move of the opponent.
The Pakistani forwards did not help their cause either as they missed many chances due to bad shooting. The champions trophy bronze medallist, missing the services of Sohail Abbas, also wasted as many as six penalty corners in the second half to negate any chances of a fight back.
Bureau Report