The Bangladesh national hockey team continued their losing streak in the Asia Cup Hockey by losing their final group match 1-9 to India at the Sultan Azlan Shah Stadium, Ipoh in Malaysia yesterday.
The result follows back-to-back losses to South Korea and Oman, which means Bangladesh will return home with three losses, no wins and having conceded 22 goals while scoring just three in the tournament.
In the yesterday’s game, India’s drag and flick specialists Rupinderpal Singh and VR Raghunath netted a hat-trick each. India’s win qualified them for the semi-finals, where they will face Malaysia on Friday. Pakistan will take on Korea in the other semi.
India had defeated Bangladesh 5-1 in their last meeting in the World Hockey League Round 2 at New Delhi in February and going into yesterday’s game, India had two group round victories behind them while Bangladesh had the same number of defeats.
India started the game brightly and opened the scoring after just four minutes when Rupinderpal Singh scored from India’s first penalty corner. The Indians continued to enjoy goals galore throughout the match and scored in the 19th, 25th, 27th, 29th, 47th, 52nd, 59th and 61st minute of the match.
Bangladesh’s lone strike came in the 35th minute, as they finished the first-half 1-5 down, when skipper and drag and flick specialist Mamunur Rahman Chayan scored from a penalty corner. The pace, height and angle of Chayan’s finish was flawless and defeated Sreejesh, India’s experienced goalkeeper.
