Jugraj Singh Shines As Dominant India Beat China To Win 5th Asian Champions Trophy Title

A determined India claimed their fifth Asian Champions Trophy title with a fighting 1-0 victory over hosts China on Tuesday, completing a display of absolute dominance in the tournament in which they won all their matches. Defender Jugraj Singh scored a rare field goal as the defending champions toiled hard before getting the better of their opponents. It was not easy for the Harmanpreet Singh-led India as they failed to break the Chinese defence in the first three quarters. Eventually, Jugraj broke the deadlock in the 51st minute to hand the Paris Olympics bronze medallists the win against a resolute Chinese side, which was playing in only its second international tournament final.

Before this, China's only appearance in the final of an international tournament was in 2006 Asian Games, where they finished second-best after losing 1-3 to Korea.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan defeated Korea 5-2 to bag the third spot in the six-team competition.

India started the contest as favourites, having defeated China 3-0 in their opening league game, but the final turned out to be a very close affair.

It was a keenly-contested battle between the two sides in the first two quarters, even though India had better scoring chances.

The Chinese defended deep and troubled their rivals with brisk counter attacks.

Raj Kumar Pal had the first shy at the goal for India but his effort was saved by Chinese goalkeeper Wang Weihao.

Raj Kumar recovered well enough and earned India's first penalty corner in the 10th minute with some brilliant stick work, which resulted in another set piece but skipper Harmanpreet was off target with the second try.

Two minutes later, Nilakanta Sharma saw a sharp save from Wang and then, the Chinese goalkeeper showed