The India men's hockey team maintained its winning streak, this time beating Korea 3-1 on Thursday to register their fourth consecutive win at the Hero Asian Champions Trophy.
Skipper Harmanpreet Singh scored a brace for the defending champions with Araijeet Singh Hundal also finding the net.
India, since winning their second consecutive bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, have won all their matches in the ongoing tournament -- defeating hosts China 3-0, Japan 5-0 and thrashing last year's runners-up Malaysia 8-1 -- besides Thursday's result.
Already assured of a semi-final berth, India play arch-rivals Pakistan on Saturday in their last league match in the six-team competition. The top four teams will qualify for the semi-finals scheduled on Monday, while the final will be played on Tuesday.
Araijeet, who scored a brace against Malaysia on Wednesday, scored the first goal in the eighth minute on Thursday as India continued their fine form before captain Harmanpreet converted two penalty corners in the ninth and 43rd minutes.
Korea's lone goal came from a penalty corner in the 30th minute, by Jihun Yang.
As has been the case so far, India started on an aggressive note with Araijeet handing his side the lead with a brilliant strike after being fed by Sukhjeet Singh. A minute later, Raj Kumar Pal, who struck a hat-trick in India's rout of Malaysia, earned a penalty corner for India and captain Harmanpreet converted the chance with a powerful dragflick.
After an impressive first quarter, India seemed to go into a shell in the next 15 minutes as Korea dominated the proceedings with continuous forays on the rival citadel. But reserve goalkeeper Suraj Karkera was impressive under the bar. The defence also stood tall until Korea pulled a goal just at the stroke of half-time through Yang whose effort went into the net after getting a deflection from Manpreet Singh's stick from a penalty corner opportunity.
The Koreans secured back-to-back penalty corners in the 35th minute, but India defended bravely. Again at the start of the fourth quarter, Jarmanpreet Singh conceded a penalty corner, but the team's defence was up to the task.
