India continued their winning-run in the Asian Champions Trophy 2024 hockey tournament on Thursday by defeating South Korea 3-1 at the Moqi Training Base in China, with captain Harmanpreet Singh bringing up a double-century of goals in the match.
Harmanpreet scored a brace while Araijeet Singh Hundal found the back of the net for the Men in White & Orange.
With this victory, the defending champions have reached the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy before facing arch-rivals Pakistan in their final Pool match on Saturday.
India have won all four of their Pool matches so far and secured the top spot with 12 points. The Paris Olympics bronze medallists had defeated China (3-0), Japan (5-0) and Malaysia (8-1) before their latest victory over the Koreans.
Craig Fulton's men were pushed harder by the Koreans throughout the match but Harmanpreet's proved enough to keep them unbeaten and hand Korea their first defeat in the tournament.
Araijeet opened the scoring for Team India in the 8th minute before Harmanpreet doubled the lead the very next minute.
Korea tried to stage a comeback in the match with Jihun Yang's penalty-corner strike at the half-hour mark but 'Kaptaan Sahab' put things beyond the opposition's reach with his 43rd-minute strike to seal the deal for his team.
The top four teams from the league stages will qualify for the semifinals scheduled on September 14, while the final will be played on Sunday (Sept 15).
