Vikramjit Singh scored a hat-trick to help India notch a convincing 3-1 victory over Singapore in the four-nation International Hockey Challenge at Singapore.
Singh was in top form and scored twice, in the 11th and 24 minutes, before sounding the board in the 49th minute to complete a hat-trick at the Delta stadium.
The first and third goal came off penalty-corners while the third was a penalty-stroke.
For the hosts, Harjeet Singh struck in the 68th minute.
Singapore gave India, who are fielding their junior team, a tough time late in the match and the defence had to work hard to thwart some good moves by the hosts.
India's coach Romesh Pathania, however, felt there was much to learn from the match, as the forwards should have scored from the many opportunities they had.
"The forwards did not play to expectations. I had expected goals from my forwards, not my midfield, " Pathania said.
Singapore coach Terry Khan was happy with the effort of his team despite the defeat.
"It was a good effort from the boys. I am extremely pleased with the way they took on India, who are without doubt, the more skillful opponents, and even though we were not as skillful as them, we showed determination and ability and that shows improvement," he said.
India take a rest and face tournament joint-leaders Pakistan, who stamped their class and routed Malaysia 6-0 to emerge at the top of leader board in another match on Thursday.
Abdul Haseem Khan scored a brace (23rd, 32nd minutes) while Abbas Haider struck the third goal (29th).
Kashif Ali (51st) increased the lead through a penalty-corner before field goals from Adeel Hussain (68th) and Muhammad Irfan Ali Khan (70th) gave Pakistan a thumping win over the defending champions.
More from rediff