New Delhi: The Indian team has once again made it to the next round of the FIH Hockey World Cup 2026 by defeating Pakistan badly. In this last match of Pool D played in Amstelveen, Netherlands, the Indian team maintained its dominance from the first quarter and ultimately defeated it 5-3. Once again the star of the team's victory was captain Harmanpreet Singh, who opened the account of the goal and penetrated the Pakistani lap twice. Apart from him, Abhishek also scored 2 goals. With this, Team India has reached Round-2, where England will also be with it.
The Indian team, which started this tournament with a 3-1 win against Wales, had to face a 2-4 defeat against England in the next match. In such a situation, this match had become very important for India to reach the next round. Although even a draw could have taken Team India to the next round, but nothing could have been better than a win, that too against Pakistan, and Team India did it.
Team India's dominance in the entire match
The first goal of the match was scored in the fifth minute itself, when captain Harmanpreet Singh gave the lead by converting a penalty corner. Then in the 11th minute Abhishek made the score 2-0. But the most amazing part of the match was the second quarter, where both the teams together scored 4 goals in just 4 minutes. In the 21st minute, Harmanpreet again scored India's third goal from a penalty corner but Pakistan's account opened in the 22nd minute. Then in the 24th minute, Abhishek scored his second goal and India's fourth goal, while in the 24th minute itself, Pakistan also scored its second goal.
The score remained 4-2 in favor of India till half time, which was reduced to 5-2 on penalty stroke by Hardik Singh in the third quarter. Although at the beginning of the last quarter, Pakistan tried its best to make a comeback by scoring its third goal but it proved to be insufficient. Ultimately Team India won the match. In this way, the Indian team stood second in Pool D with 6 points, while England stood first with 9 points after winning all three matches. Pakistan was out of the title race with third and Wales fourth place. Both got 1-1 point.
Team India unbeaten for 21 consecutive matches
With this victory, India's streak of being invincible against Pakistan in the last 10 years also continued. Team India was last defeated by Pakistan in February 2016. Since then, there have been a total of 21 matches between the two, in which India has won 18 matches, 2 have been drawn, while one was cancelled.