India 26-0 Hong Kong China: Indian men register biggest ever hockey win

Indian men’s hockey team registered their biggest ever win in international hockey. The scoreline read – India 26-0 Hong Kong China.

India’s men hockey team enjoyed a thumping victory over Hong Kong China at the Asian Games 2018, as they crushed the side 26-0 to record their highest win by margin. The gap of quality between the two sides couldn’t be any more evident, as 14 outfield players scored goals for India in the victory.

India’s previous record victory came against the United States in 1932 Olympics, when they beat them 24-1.

Indian men’s team have scored a whopping 43 goals over the two games against Indonesia and Hong Kong, China respectively. India earlier won 17-0 against the host nation.

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The match was expected to be largely one-sided to begin with, as Hong Kong, China is ranked at 45th in the World Rankings, while India is among the top-5 hockey playing nations.

Rupinder Pal Singh (3rd, 5th, 30th, 45th, 59th minutes), Harmanpreet Singh (29th, 52nd, 53rd, 54th) and Akashdeep Singh (2nd, 32nd, 35th) scored a hat-trick each, while Manpreet Singh (3rd, 17th), Lalit Kumar (17th, 19th), Varun Kumar (23rd, 30th), SV Sunil (7th), Vivek Sagar Prasad (14th), Mandeep Singh (21st), Amit Rohidas (27th), Dilpreet Singh (48th), Chinglensana Singh (51st), Simranjeet Singh (53rd) and Surender Singh (55th) were the other goalscorers in the match.

Such was the extent of the victory that seven minutes before the final whistle, India’s coach decided to substitute goalkeeper Krishan Bahadur Pathak, who himself came as a substitute for captain P Sreejesh.

India also recorded 60 shots throughout the match, while Hong Kong, China could manage none. Michael Chung, the goalkeeper for Hong Kong, China made some terrific saves throughout the match and prevented from conceding a world record loss.

The record for the biggest win by margin remains with New Zealand, who beat American Samoa 36-1 in 1994.