Ipoh, Malaysia: In what could be said as a complete dominance by the Men-In-Blue over their arch-rivals from across the border, India thrashed Pakistan 5-1 in the 25th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh on Tuesday.

India took an early lead in the game through Manpreet Singh, in the 4th minute of the game when he reverse hit a pass by SV Sunil into the bottom corner of the goal post, leaving Pakistan shell-shocked. However, Pakistan drew parity soon when Md Irfan converted one of the two PCs that they bagged in the 7th minute, pushing it to the right of India’s goalkeeper Akash to make it 1-1.

But India had a different plan thereafter as Sunil produced a brilliant deflection off a pass from Manpreet Singh direct into the net, giving India a 2-1 lead by the 10th minute of the game. Thereafter, India completely dominated the proceedings as India won a penalty corner when Danish Mujtaba’s deflection of Manpreet was wrongly tackled by the Pakistani defender. The Indians made no mistake as Harmanpreet Singh made the ball for Rupinder Pal Singh who pushed it straight into the goal but Pakistan’s goal keeper Imran Butt made a brilliant save, with India going into the into second half leading 2-1.

Pakistan did try to come back strongly in the third quarter and with Rupinder Pal Singh getting a green card gave them an advantage. However, India consolidated their lead when A Kothajit made a ball for Nikkin Thimmaiah in the circle who deflected the pass towards Sunil. Sunil dived in to score his second of the game, making it 3-1 in India’s favour.

Being in the driver’s seat, India made it a one-sided affair in the fourth quarter and Talwinder Singh scored India’s fourth goal off an SK Uthappa cross in the 50th minute, before Rupinder added another, converting a PC in the 54th minute to make it 5-1.