India brushed aside Japan 8-0 in a 9th-16th place classification match of the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup at the Birsa Munda Stadium in Rourkela on Thursday.

The win, India’s 27th over Japan, will bring a bit of relief for the hosts, who had crashed out of the quarter-final race after going down to new Zealand in the shootout.

After the first two quarters produced no goals, a brilliant coordinated move from the Indians in the third quarter of the game opened the floodgates. A total of four goals came in the third quarter, while another four were scored in the last quarter.

Abhisekh, who scored two goals for Indian adjudged the Player of the Match. “I am quite happy. It will motivate the team in the coming days,” he said.

The first goal came when Mandeep Singh converted a penalty corner in the 32nd minute of the game. Abhishek then struck in 35th minute to make it 2-0. The third goal followed four minutes later when Prasad Vivek Sagar converted a penalty corner. Abhishek struck again in the 43rd minute to make it 4-0.

In the fourth quarter, Harmanpreet Singh increased the lead by converting a penalty corner in the 45th minute. Harmanpreet got another to take his tally to two, while Manpreet Singh and Sukhjeet Singh were the other scorers for India.

The Japanese too had their chances, but failed.

In the other classification matches of the day, Wales sprung a surprise by beating France 2-1 in the shootout after regulation time ended 2-2, while South Africa and Argentina picked up big wins, beating Malaysia (6-3) and Chile (8-0), respectively.