Three minutes. That is how long Mohali’s big night lasted before it went quiet.
Japan’s Kazumasa Matsumoto picked up the ball near the circle, turned, and beat the keeper with a backhand that stunned the Olympian Balbir Singh Senior International Hockey Stadium. India were a goal down in the Asian Champions Trophy final, in front of a home crowd that had come expecting a coronation. For the next 39 minutes, the noise never quite came back the way it had started.
Then the second half happened, and the final stopped being a contest.
Twelve minutes that decided the final
Shilanand Lakra levelled it in the 42nd minute, finishing a penalty corner variation that ran through captain Harmanpreet Singh, the Tribune reported. Dilpreet Singh put India ahead in the 47th. Jugraj Singh’s drag-flick made it 3-1 in the 52nd minute, and Vivek Sagar Prasad finished the job a minute later. Four goals in eleven minutes. India won 4-1, and the stadium finally sounded the way the crowd had imagined it would all evening.
The scoreline flattered nobody and surprised nobody who had watched this tournament. India had already beaten Japan by the same 4-1 margin in the league stage in Jalandhar on October 30. Same score, same opponent, different stakes. The final only confirmed what the league game had suggested. Japan can live with India for a half, and then the depth tells.
Japan’s route to the final had been the hard way, a goalless semi-final against Malaysia settled 5-3 in a shootout, the Indian Express reported. They defended for an hour that night and held their nerve when it mattered. In Mohali they held India for 42 minutes. It was not enough, and that is the honest summary of the gap between these two teams right now.
What the Asian Champions Trophy win says about this team
This was India’s sixth Asian Champions Trophy title, after 2011, 2016, 2018, 2023 and 2024, and the third in a row. No other team has won it more than three times. Pakistan, the next most successful side, sit on three. India have doubled that, and they did it at home, in a tournament they never once looked like losing.
The numbers back that up. India finished with seven wins from seven matches, the only unbeaten team in the tournament, myKhel reported. They put eight past South Korea in the semi-final, a game in which Harmanpreet scored his 250th goal for India. The final was the one night they trailed. They trailed for 39 minutes and still won by three.
There is a temptation to file this under routine dominance and move on. That would miss the point. Indian hockey spent years playing its biggest nights in front of half-empty stands in borrowed stadiums. Mohali’s new stadium was full, loud, and visibly proud of itself, and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann used the night to say the city is ready to host the 2030 Hockey World Cup, myKhel reported. A trophy is nice. A home that wants the sport back is worth more.
“We stuck to our plan for 60 minutes,” captain Harmanpreet Singh said after the match, ANI reported. That is the least dramatic summary of a final that swung on eleven minutes, and probably the most accurate. India did not panic at 0-1. They did not chase the game. They waited for the plan to work, and then it worked all at once.
It has been a strong week for Indian sport in general. Kohli’s 74 in Auckland gave the cricket team a 1-0 ODI lead in New Zealand, and the Asian Para Games heroes were honoured in Delhi on Thursday after a record 114-medal haul. Hockey, quietly, produced the biggest statement of the lot.
Japan’s wait goes on
For Japan, this was a third lost final, after 2013 and 2021, and they remain without a title in this tournament. That is a harsh return for a team that defended so well for so long, but finals do not hand out prizes for effort. Japan’s problem was not the first 42 minutes. It was the eleven that followed, when India’s penalty corners and second-phase runners arrived in waves and there was no answer to any of them.
They will take something from Mohali all the same. They are the only team in this tournament that made India sweat, even briefly, and they did it twice, in Jalandhar and again in the final. The gap is real. It is also the kind of gap that closes one player at a time, and Japan’s young side looked like a team that believes it can close it.
So where does this leave Indian hockey? With a trophy, a hat-trick, and a question that will follow the team into next year. Dominance in Asia is settled. The world beyond Asia is a different argument, and the next time this team plays a final that matters, the crowd in Mohali will expect the same ending. The bar, as ever, moves the moment you clear it. On Thursday night in Mohali, India cleared it with seven minutes still on the clock.