In their first-round pool encounter of the FIH junior men’s hockey World Cup, India defeated Korea 4-2 thanks to a hat-trick from Araijeet Singh Hundal and a solid performance.
In the Pool C encounter, Hundal scored in the eleventh, sixteenth, and forty-first minutes, while Amandeep struck the back of the net for India in the thirtyth minute. Korea’s goal scorers were Minkwon Kim (45th) and Dohyun Lim (38th).
India got off to a fast start when Hundal scored off a penalty corner in the first quarter. India had lost to France in the bronze-medal match at the previous edition in 2021 in Bhubaneswar.
With a 3-0 lead at the interval, the Indians maintained their dominance in the second quarter with goals from Hundal and Amandeep, both of which were field goals.
Midway through the third quarter, Korea got one back through Dohyun, but India quickly responded as Hundal scored another field goal to complete his hat-trick. The game was 4-1 in favour of the Indians, who seemed to have slowed down a little. With Minkwon hitting the goal, the Koreans narrowed the gap as they applied more pressure for goals. In their second pool encounter, India will next play Spain. The other nation in the four-team Pool C is Canada.