Ruthless India blank Asiad champions Japan 9-0, but questions persist over penalty corner conversion

Sundeep Misra


India have won each of their three matches at the Asian Champions Trophy 2018 so far. Image: Twitter/ @News18Sports

India’s road to redemption for the ‘sins of Jakarta’ continued as they mauled Asian Games champions Japan 9-0 at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Muscat. In their last meeting at the Asian Games in Jakarta, India had whipped Japan 8-0 before imploding against Malaysia in the semi-finals. At the Champions Trophy on Sunday, Japan gave India their third consecutive win in as many matches. Even though the Japanese had brought in a few young players, India’s domination through the four quarters gave hardly any room to the opposition to experiment with a different structure or even try and keep the scoreline down. Lalit Upadhyay, Harmanpreet Singh and Mandeep Singh scored a brace each with Gurjant Singh, Kothajit and Akashdeep Singh rounding off the tally.