Sultan Azlan Shah Cup: India thrash Canada 7-3; enter Azlan Shah final

India striker Mandeep Singh celebrates scoring against Canada at the 28th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh, Malaysia yesterday

Striker Mandeep Singh scored a brilliant hat-trick as India outplayed Canada 7-3 to book a summit clash berth against Korea in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament here yesterday.

Korea beat hosts Malaysia 2-1 in another match of the day to set up a summit clash against India on Saturday. Mandeep, 24, fired in three quick field goals (20th, 27th and 29th minutes), all of them coming in the second quarter, after Varun Kumar had given India the lead in the 12th minute of the high-scoring match. At the half time, India were 4-0 up in the match before Canada reduced the margin through a strike from Mark Pearson in the 35th minute.

Amit Rohidas (39th), Vivek Prasad (55th) and Nilakanta Sharma (58th) struck later to take the game beyond the reach of the Canadians who scored two late goals through Fin Boothroyd (50th) and James Wallace (57th).

India and Korea, the two unbeaten sides in the tournament, now have 10 points each from four matches, with identical three wins and a draw. They both booked a berth in the final with a game in hand to be played on Friday.

India play Poland (zero point) in their final league match on Friday while Korea take on Japan (3 points from 4 matches) on the same day. Malaysia are third in the league table with six points with one match left to play.

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