India defeated Pakistan in the final, completed a hat-trick of titles.

With the help of four goals from Arijit Singh Hundal, defending champion India completed a hat-trick of titles by defeating arch-rivals Pakistan 5-3 in the Men’s Junior Hockey Asia Cup final on Wednesday. This was India’s fifth title. Before this, he had also captured the title in 2004, 2008, 2015 and 2023. The tournament was not held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Arijit converted three penalty corners in the 4th, 18th and 54th minutes and also scored a field goal in the 47th minute. Dilraj Singh scored the second goal for India in the 19th minute.

Sufiyan Khan scored two goals

For Pakistan, Sufyan Khan (30th, 39th) converted two penalty corners while Hannan Shahid scored a field goal in the third minute. Earlier, Japan had secured third place by defeating Malaysia 2-1. There was not much difference between the two teams in the first quarter, as both India and Pakistan fought hard for possession. The highlight of the first quarter were the aerial passes used by both teams. But Pakistan took the lead in the very first minute with Shahid’s field goal.

India never wavered from Arijit Singh’s dominance throughout the match and earned their first penalty corner just seconds later, with Arijit equalizing the score with a powerful drag-flick to the right of the Pakistan goalkeeper. India improved their game in the second quarter and earned their second penalty corner in the 18th minute, which Arayjeet converted with another powerful flick. A minute later, a brilliant field goal by Dilraj increased India’s lead to 3-1. However, Pakistan reduced the gap when Sufia scored a penalty corner in the 30th minute. India put tough pressure on Pakistan in the last 10 minutes and won a few more penalty corners. Here Aryajeet once again scored a goal with tremendous variation and made the score 5-3.