India have qualified for round 2 of the FIH Men's Hockey World Cup 2026 after a high-scoring win over Pakistan, where India won 5-3.
Goals from Harmanpreet Singh (x2), Abhishek (x2) and Hardik Singh were enough as Hannan Shahid (x2) and Sufyan Khan's goals became just consolations as Pakistan were eliminated from the World Cup.
Earlier in the day, England hammered Wales 8-2 to top the group in comprehensive fashion. They will take their three points (and +2 goal difference) from their win to the second round where both India and England will be joined by Netherlands and one of Argentina or New Zealand.
Harmanpreet started the day's scoring in traditional fashion, blootering a drag flick from the game's first PC into the bottom right corner in the fifth minute. Abhishek made it two with a superb bit of play down the inside left and mazy dribbling around the goalmouth six minutes later.
Harmanpreet was at it again in the 21st minute. He tried a cheeky pass off a PC before the ball was worked back to him and he powered home a slap from close range.
That seemed to wake Pakistan up and Hannan Shahid's dribbling and speed saw him work a brilliant field goal just a minute later to make it 3-1. In the 24th minute, both teams scored a goal each: Abhishek with another sensational dribble in the goalmouth, his 3D skills coming to the fore, before Sufyan smashed home a dragflick from Pakistan's first PC to make it 4-2.
That's how they went into the half, with momentum on Pakistan's side, but India started the second half the better. Inside five minutes, they had forced a penalty stroke after a dangerous tackle by Arshad Liaqat on Sukhjeet Singh and Hardik stepped up and made no mistake.
Q3 was completely India's as they bossed possession, but Pakistan started the fourth quarter with a much better tempo and a high press saw Shahid burst through one-on-one with Suraj Karkera - before he calmly slipped it into the near post bottom corner. With the score at 5-3, Pakistan had the encouragement to go all out again and that made for a dramatic finish, but India managed to hold on.
You can relive the match, as it happened, on our live blog below: