Bangladesh hammered 9-0 by India

Bangladesh were hammered 9-0 by India in their first match of the Asian Champions Trophy Hockey at the Maulana Bhashani National Hockey Stadium in Dhaka on Wednesday.

This was Bangladesh’s biggest defeat to India, with their previous record being a 9-1 thrashing in 2013.

Before the match, Bangladesh captain Ashraful Islam had already surrendered on Tuesday as he had said that they couldn't beat India, and they were looking for a narrow margin of defeat.

But they failed to achieve that as head coach Gobinathan Krishnamurthy’s ‘100% defensive tactics’ only led them to disaster.

Bangladesh conceded seven penalty corners within the first quarter, but India failed to capitalise on any of them. But they managed a field goal as Dilpreet Singh opened the scoring in the 12th minute.

In the second quarter, Dilpreet scored his second before Lalit Singh converted India’s eighth penalty corner to make it 3-0.

In the third quarter, Jarmanpreet Singh converted two penalty corners to make it 5-0, before Dilpreet completed his hat-trick in the 44th minute to make it 6-0.

Bangladesh’s nightmare outing only got worse as Akashdeep Singh made it 7-0 in the 54th minute, and a minute later, Mandeep Mor made it 8-0.

India vice-captain Harmanpreet Singh then put the final nail in Bangladesh’s coffin to make it 9-0.

After the match, Bangladesh skipper Ashraful said they committed a few mistakes during the match.

“You have to understand that we got very little time to prepare for this tournament. Whatever the coach taught us in this period, we tried to play in that way. India are a very good and very organised side. They are ranked third in the world. If I compare, we played okay but committed some mistakes. We conceded two or three goals because of our fault,” he said after the match on Wednesday.

He added, “We are playing international hockey after 40 months. And in this time, some of their players have played 50 to 70 matches. I think this is where the difference was. I think Bangladesh are stuck at their place, whereas India have moved a lot forward.”

Ashraful also said that they lost their way in the match. He said, “I think in the first two quarters, we managed to play our game. But as time passed, we lost our way.”

The Bangladesh captain also told the media that he could not talk about their plans for their next match against South Korea.

“I cannot speak about our plans for the match against South Korea. We have their video footage, which we will analyse and decide how we will play,” he said.

Bangladesh will face South Korea in their second match of the tournament on December 17 at the same venue.