The Indian Under-18 Junior Men’s hockey team overcame the Bangla threat in the final match of the 8th Men’s U-18 Asia Cup in Dhaka, Bangladesh as they defeated the host nation by a margin of 5-4, snatching the victory in the final 20 seconds of the game. The win for India makes them the Junior champion of Asia in hockey and means that the future is bright for the nation in the sport.
The final match took place between the hosts Bangladesh and neighbours India where the latter came out on top after the former had taken the lead inside the first 16 minutes. However, the Indians did not stay behind for a long time as they quickly pulled one back two minutes later in the 18th minute.
Both the teams went into the half-time level on terms at 1-1, setting up a tempting second half for the viewers. In the second half, both teams showed their attacking flair as Bangladesh went 2-1 ahead. But the Indians did not back down as they scored two quick-fire goals to make it 3-2 in their favour. However, the home side were not going to let go without giving a fight as they scored again to make it 3-3.
India scored just a minute later to take the lead yet again from the hosts as the score became 4-3 in India’s favour but the hosts struck again a minute later to equalise yet again to make it 4-4. It turned out to be a tug-of-war between the two sides in the latter stages of the game as India snatched a goal in the final 20 seconds of the match to win the match 5-4.
Earlier in the tournament, India had started their journey on a bad note as they lost to Bangladesh in the opening match. But the young players showed character to bounce back from the defeat as they produced some marvellous hockey to defeat Oman by 11-0.
It was the trio of Shivam Anand, Dilpreet Singh and skipper Nilam Sanjeep Xess who had scored for the Indian team as they defeated Pakistan 3-1 in the semi-finals and made sure that they repeated their performance in the big final of the tournament. Goalkeeper Pankaj Kumar Rajak also turned out to be a star performer for the team throughout the tournament.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, had looked very impressive for most part of the competition as they came into the final, undefeated. The hosts had defeated India 5-4 in the first game of the tournament in what turned out to be a thrilling encounter.
A dominating 10-0 victory against Oman in the second match meant that the hosts qualified for the semifinals and faced Chinese Taipei, whom they thrashed 6-1 to qualify for the finals.
