The Men’s AHF Cup started in Jakarta, Indonesia.
In the first match of the day Iran national hockey team defeated Singapore 2-1 in their opening match of the 2022 Men’s AHF Cup on Friday.
It was the first Match of the tournament, with the expectation and the nerves that came with it. The game began with a win by Singapore with a goal by Silas Noor in the 22nd minute of the second quarter. With a close match, Iran managed to reverse the result, Mahdi Shahrokhi converted the two winning goals for Iran. Regarding sanctions, there were 3 green cards for Iran and 1 yellow card for Singapore of 5 minutes.
On the second match of the first day, Thailand plays against Kazakhstan with the result ended 6-0 for the Kazakhs team.
In the 9th minute Yerkebulan Dyussebekov scored the first goal of the match to put his team ahead. With a wide difference in the game, Kazakhstan managed to convert 5 more goals, by Aman Yelubayev in minute 11, Daulet Urmanov converting 2 goals in minute 31 and 47, Nurkhan Sansyzbayev with jersey number 25 converted in the third quarter and the final 6-0 was by number 10 Yermek Tashkeyev.
The last clash between these 2 teams was at the Asian Games 2018 with a totally different result with Thailand winning 3-2.
Thailand will play again tomorrow for Pool A against Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan will play on March 15 against Sri Lanka.
The third Pool A match met Sri Lanka against Uzbekistan.
At the beginning of the match, the first goal was scored by Ishanka Doranagala from a penalty corner to put Sri Lanka 1-0 up. In the 11th minute it was the same Ishanka who converted again this time from a reverse stick shot to extend his team’s lead. Sri Lanka showed they could handle the game from the start weakening Uzbekistan who were doing their best to defend their goal from further goals.
It didn’t take long to arrive and in the 14th minute before the end of the first quarter, Fernando Udayashan scored the 3rd goal.
In the 20th minute Rajitha Kulathunga received a pass in the middle of the circle and swept it past the Uzbekistan goalkeeper.
To end the match and the strong victory, Sanda Sudusinghe entered the circle in the 37th minute and scored an aerial flick to make it 5-0 for his team.
Sri Lanka will face Thailand on March 14 and Uzbekistan will face Thailand tomorrow to start defining the places in Pool A.
At end of the first day, we saw the match between Bangladesh vs Indonesia.
The host faced Bangladesh a strong team WR.38 of Pool B who will convert their first goal at the end of the first quarter from a penalty corner Khorshadur Rahman made it 1-0.
In the 20th minute Arshad Hossain deflected a shot in the circle to make the lead 2-0.
Bangladesh was on the offensive in the first minute of the match, gaining an advantage over the hosts who were trying to do their job on the field.
In the 23rd minute Shohanur Sobuj converted his first goal with a reverse stick shot to extend the lead to 3-0.
Khorshadur Rahman scored again for his team, extending the lead to 3-0, again from a penalty corner. Puskar Khisa, Rashel Mahmud and Roman Sarkar scored goals 5, 6 and 7 respectively to seal the result with field play goals.
Trying to close the gap Indonesia WR.51 kept attacking getting a penalty stroke in the 56th minute executed by number 11 Ardam to make the score 7-1.
In the last minutes of the match Indonesia kept on fighting, getting a sweep goal executed by Ahdan Sasi, to end the match 7-2 with a victory for Bangladesh.
Bangladesh will play their next Pool B match against Singapore on March 14 and the host will play against Oman on the same day.
After this first day in the AHF Cup 2022 the positions are as follows:
Pool A: 1° Kazakhstan 2°Sri Lanka 3°Uzbekistan 4°Thailand
Pool B: 1° Bangladesh 2°Iran 3° Oman 4° Singapore 5°Indonesia
