NEW DELHI: India finally opened their account in Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament, after back-to-back defeats, with a convincing 3-1 victory over arch-rivals Pakistan on Tuesday.India were trailing by one goal early in the match before Rupinder Pal Singh scored in the fifth minute to level the match 1-1. Akashdeep Singh soon increased India’s lead in the 9th minute by scoring the team’s second goal.India lead Pakistan 2-1 at half-time.
In the keenly contested second half of the match, India further increased their lead to 3-1 through Mandeep Singh’s goal in 56th minute.In their previous matches, India had put up a spirited fight before going down 3-4 to six-time champions Australia in their opening encounter, while a defensive lapse towards the end in the second match cost them dear as they went down 1-2 to South Korea.Pakistan, on the other hand, started their campaign with a 3-4 win against New Zealand before being crushed 0-6 by Australia on Sunday.