India trounce Malaysia 8-1 in Asian Champions Trophy, register hattrick of wins

India trounced Malaysia 8-1 in their third league-stage encounter of the ongoing Asian Champions Trophy at the Moqi Training Base, Hulunbuir (China) on Wednesday (September 11). The men in blue continue to be on top of the points table and is the only team to win all their matches so far in the tournament. Rajkumar Pal was the hero of the day for India as he registered a hattrick of goals in one of India's biggest wins over Malaysia.

Team India's good run has continued right from Paris where they won the bronze medal at the Olympics and have now won three matches on the trot in the ongoing competition. Apart from Rajkumar, captain Harmanpreet Singh, Araijeet Singh, Uttam Singh and Jugraj Singh were the other goal-scorers for India.

India have been completely dominant so far in the Asian Champions Trophy with wins over Japan, hosts China and Malaysia scoring a total of 16 goals. The dominance was such against Malaysia today that at one stage it felt like they will cross the double-digit mark. Nevertheless, Malaysia gave a better account of themselves in the second half conceding only three goals while scoring one too. The result was a foregone conclusion in the first half itself with India scoring five goals.

55% possession, five field goals, 32 circle entries and 15 penalty corners shows how well India fared against their opposition on the match day with Rajkumar Pal enjoying his outing with three goals. Having said that, India also conceded only their second goal of the tournament in the second half when Akhimullah Anuar found the net foxing India's new goalkeeper Krishan Pathak in the 34th minute of the match.

Interestingly, Araijeet Singh was named the player of the match who scored tow goals ahead of Rajkumar who deserved it for scoring three.

India squad for Asian Champions Trophy