Asia Cup: Fancied India crush Kazakhstan 15-0 to march into Super 4s

Fancied India produced a dominant performance to crush Kazakhstan 15-0 in an utterly lopsided game and march into the Super 4 stage of the Asia Cup hockey tournament with an all-win record here on Monday.

Abhishek (5^th, 8^th, 20^th and 59^th), Sukhjeet Singh (15^th, 32^nd, 38^th), Jugraj Singh (24^th, 31^st, 47^th), skipper Harmanpreet Singh (26^th), Amit Rohidas (29^th), Rajinder Singh (32^nd), Sanjay Singh (54^th), Dilpreet Singh (55^th) scored the goals for India.

Pool A toppers India found the net four times in the second quarter and led Kazakhstan 7-0 at half time, even as Abhishek completed his hat-trick five minutes into the second quarter in a thoroughly dominant showing by the home team.

Abhishek’s striking partner upfront, Sukhjeet, and Jugraj also scored hat-tricks in the one-sided match.

India had beaten China and Japan in their first two matches.

The winner of the continental tournament will qualify for next year’s World Cup to be jointly hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands.