Asian Champions Trophy: Harmanpreet Singh celebrates 200 goals as India breeze past South Korea

India's amazing run in the Asian Champions Trophy has continued with their fourth consecutive win and have qualified for the semifinals of the tournament. They defeated South Korea in their fourth league stage encounter 3-1 at the Moqi Training Base, Hulunbuir (China) on Thursday, September 12. It was a special day for skipper Harmanpreet Singh as he scored his 200th goal for India at the highest level becoming only the third player from the country to do so. Overall, he is the 12th player to complete 200 goals in international hockey.

Having won their first three matches already, India tested their backup goalkeeper Suraj Karkera who displayed fantastic skills to win the Player of the Match award. Karkera was at his best in the game as he kept the Korean attackers at bay who tried to find the net a lot of times during the match. India weren't at their best in the defence today but Karkera made sure the efforts from the attackers didn't go in vain as India sealed the game 3-1.

Araijeet Singh, the player of the match of the Malaysia encounter, opened India's account in the 8th minute and captain Harmanpreet stepped up to double the lead in the very next minute. The penalty corner specialist of India scored his 200th goal in the same way but Korea hit back at the stroke of half-time to reduce India's lead.

However, in the 43rd minute, Harmanpreet once again found the net in the penalty corner to make it 3-1 for India. The last quarter was thrilling as Korea consistently made circle entries to threaten India but Suraj Karkera was too good for them as he didn't let the team's lead go down.

India will face arch-rivals Pakistan on Saturday (September 14) at 1:15 PM IST in their final league-stage encounter and will be keen on continuing their winning run.

India's squad for the Asian Champions Trophy: