Japan beat India at Hero Asia Cup

JAKARTA: A gritty Japan handed the defending champions India their first loss of the Hero Asia Cup here Tuesday. With Japan trouncing India 5-2 in their pool A clash, India will now need to beat hosts Indonesia by a big margin and expect a favourable result in the Pakistan-Japan game on Thursday to stay in contention for a place in the Super 4s.

Goals by Kosei Kawabe (40th, 56th), Ken Nagayoshi (24th), Ryoma Ooka (49th) and Koji Yamasaki (54th) ensured Japan clinched their second win of the tournament while India's goals came from Pawan Rajbhar (45th) and Uttam Singh (50th) both from field efforts.

India had earlier drawn 1-1 against arch-rivals Pakistan in their opening pool match on Monday while Japan began their campaign with a strong 9-0 win against hosts Indonesia.

Pakistan put up a dominant performance to thrash hosts Indonesia 13-0 win in a pool game.

With this win, Pakistan kept intact their hopes of making it to the Super 4s stage of the tournament, which is a World Cup Qualifier.

In another match, a spirited Bangladesh beat nemesis Oman 2-1 in their Pool B encounter. It was a sweet victory for the Bangladesh team, as they had lost to Oman 6-2 in the final of the Asian Games Qualifier only a fortnight ago. IANS

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