The 7th edition of the men’s Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament is set to commence at Chennai’s Mayor Radhakrishnan stadium on Thursday, August 3, with the final scheduled for August 13. This marks the first time the tournament is being hosted in India, and it’s a significant occasion for the Tamil Nadu capital as it welcomes an international hockey tournament after a gap of over 15 years.

The timing of the tournament is crucial as it comes less than two months before the Asian Games in China, where the gold medalists directly qualify for the Paris Olympics next year. This provides essential practice for the teams participating in both events, which are scheduled from September 23 to October 8. Moreover, the tournament serves as the first home event for India’s new chief coach, Craig Fulton.

The competing nations in the tournament include India, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan, Pakistan, and China. India, ranked fourth in the world, holds the top position among the six teams, while China has the lowest ranking. India is also the only team in the field with Pro league experience. The six teams will play against each other once in a round-robin format, and the top four will progress to the semi-finals.

India and Pakistan have both won the trophy three times each. India emerged as champions in 2011 and 2016, while Pakistan secured victories in 2012 and 2013. In 2018, the arch rivals were declared joint winners after the final was washed out by rain. India aims to improve its performance from the last edition in 2021, where they lost in the semifinals, and South Korea claimed the title with a win over Japan in the final.

India’s round-robin games will take place at 8:30 pm IST.

Aug 3 India vs China

          South Korea vs Japan 4pm

         Malaysia vs Pakistan 6:15 pm

Aug 4 India vs Japan

          Korea vs Pakistan 4 pm

          China vs Malaysia 6:15 pm

Aug 6 India vs Malaysia

          China vs Korea 4 pm

          Pakstan vs Japan 6:15 pm

Aug 7 India vs South Korea

          Japan vs Malaysia 4 pm

          Pakistan vs China 6:15 pm

Aug 9 India vs Pakistan

          Japan vs China 4 pm

          Malayasia vs Korea 6: 15 pm

The Semi Finals are on August 11 and final on August 13.

The matches will be broadcasted on Star Sports Network in India

At the ongoing Hockey World Cup in Odisha, the Indian team will play a do or die match on Sunday. India will face New Zealand at 7 pm at the Kalinga Stadium. If the Indian team overcomes the challenge of New Zealand in this crossover match, then it will enter the quarter-finals. The losing team will be out of medal contention.

This Pool-D crossover encounter will be crucial for both. India beat Wales 4-2 in their last match, while England topped the pool on the basis of better goal defence. England has already entered the top-8.

India ahead in statistics

If we look at the records of both the teams, so far 44 matches have been played between the two teams. In these, India has won 24 and New Zealand has won 15 matches. Also 5 matches have ended in a draw. Means India has won 54.55 per cent matches. While New Zealand’s winning percentage is 34.09 per cent while 11.36 per cent matches ended in a draw.
India and New Zealand have come face to face 6 times in the World Cup. Of these, India has won 3, while 2 were bagged by New Zealand. One match ended in a draw.

Tarrant, Ross and Child can turn the match

New Zealand also cannot be underestimated. Even though the team could not enter the semi-finals of the World Cup so far, it had given a tough challenge to India in the Pro-League. New Zealand defender Blair Tarrant, midfielder Nick Ross and forward Simon Child have the ability to turn matches at any time. Before the match, Indian coach Graham Reid has also said that the match against New Zealand will not be easy, so the team will have to give best performance.

Penalty corners India’s strong point but field goals important too

Talking about the Indian team, penalty corners have been India’s strong point, but the Indian team under Harmanpreet’s captaincy cannot rely only on penalties. The team also needs to make more field goals. However, Indian players have also scored field goals in this World Cup. However, a few penalty chances were also missed.

Indian hockey team on Wednesday defeated arch-rivals Pakistan to secure the bronze medal in the Asian Champions Trophy Hockey 2021 in Dhaka.

Fight for the third place between both countries was a neck-to-neck contest, where the Men in Blue led by Manpreet Singh came out on top and defeated the arch-rivals Pakistan by 4-3 for the third spot in the tournament.

After suffering a defeat from Japan in the semifinals, India had to play Pakistan for the bronze trophy. Earlier a couple of days ago, India had beaten Pakistan in their group match by 3-1 and entered into the semi-finals as the only unbeaten team in the round-robin stages. While in another semi-final, South Korea also beat Pakistan by 6-5 in a close encounter.

The match was a thriller from the very first quarter of the game. India opened the scoring first when Harmanpreet Singh scored from the penalty corner, but it was Pakistan’s Arfraz who equalized for the Men in Green in the first quarter. Once India was in trouble when Abdul Rana scored second for Pakistan and India went behind by 2-1. But eventually, in the final quarter, India gained the momentum and took a crucial lead of 3-2 through Varun Kumar’s penalty corner and Gursahibjit Singh’s equaliser.

And last but not least star striker and veteran player Akshdeep Singh sealed the match with India’s final goal, which put India ahead by 4-2 against arch-rivals Pakistan. Later, Pakistan also managed to score one more goal, but it was enough for India to clinch the bronze medal by thrashing Pakistan 4-3.

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For India, Harmanpreet Singh, Sumit, Varun Kumar and Akashdeep Singh scored the goals, while Arfraz, Abdul Rana and Nadeem were the scorers for Pakistan.

On the other hand, Japan and South Korea will be fighting for the Gold medal of the Asian Champions Trophy Hockey 2021.