Virender Sehwag congratulates India after they win bronze in Asia Cup hockey beating Pakistan

He is known to harbour an interest in other sports as well besides cricket, his own discipline. And former India opener Virender Sehwag on September 1, congratulated the Indian team after they defeated arch-rivals Pakistan 2-1 in hockey in the Asian Games to win the bronze medal.

India took an early lead in the game when Akashdeep Singh scored in the third minute of the game. There was no goal in the next two quarters and in the 50th minute of the game, Harmanpreet Singh converted a penalty corner to double the lead for India. Muhammad Aziz pulled one back for Pakistan in the 52nd minute but it was not enough to earn the Men in Green a medal this edition.

India, Pak were undefeated in group stage but lost in semis

“Congratulations India on beating Pakistan 2-1, and winning the hockey bronze,” the 39-year-old tweeted. Both India and Pakistan, winners and runners-up of the 2014 edition at Incheon, South Korea, respectively, lost in the semi-finals after remaining undefeated in the group stage. While India went down 6-7 to Malaysia in penalty shootouts, Pakistan lost to Japan 0-1. Both Malaysia and Japan will vie for their first gold in the tournament.

Congratulations India on beating Pakistan 2-1, and winning the hockey bronze
⁠ ⁠ #AsianGames2018⁠ ⁠ pic.twitter.com/tMbLOyKlHO

— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) September 1, 2018

India played a much better game than that against Malaysia and didn’t repeat the same mistakes and managed to hold on to the early lead. As the holders and the No. 5 team in the world, India came to the tournament as favourites but will have to content with a third-place finish. They, however, defeated Pakistan, ranked 13th in the world, for the second time in the last three months. They had walloped the arch-rivals 4-0 in the Champions Trophy played in June.

India were ranked eighth in the medals’ tally in the ongoing Asian Games in Indonesia, winning 69, including 15 golds. Pakistan, on the other hand, have won four bronzes so far. China tops the table with 129 golds with Japan in the second place with 72 golds.

For all the latest cricket news and other updates follow CricTracker.