Took great teamwork to make such a comeback: Harmanpreet

India skipper Harmanpreet Singh (right) hugs his players after a goal against Malaysia in the Asian Champions Trophy final at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium in Chennai on Saturday. Pic/Hockey India

India captain Harmanpreet Singh gave full credit to his team for bouncing back from a two-goal deficit and beating Malaysia in the final of the Asian Champions Trophy at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium on Saturday.

India opened the scoring through a Jugraj Singh (9th min) penalty corner conversion before Malaysia scored thrice to stun the near-10,000 crowd that was screaming their lungs out initially. Abu Kamal Azrai (14th), Razie Rahim (18th) and Aminudin Muhamad (28th) put the visitors 3-1 up before India scored twice in the 45th minute, first through a Harmanpreet penalty stroke and then through a Gurjant Singh field goal. Akashdeep Singh finally netted the winner in the 56th minute. However, the fact that India were down until the 44th minute of the 60-minute encounter was not a worry for Harmanpreet.

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"A final match is always a tough affair and Malaysia played very well in the first two quarters, but we had discussed before the match that whether we are leading by two goals or trailing by two goals, we will not change our playing structure," he said at the post-match press conference here.

India rightly stuck to their structure and coach Craig Fulton's defend to win style and rallied to victory. "We always keep talking about things like team work, but today we showed it, so full credit to our team work. This team has shown that we can make such a comeback in such a close game and it makes me very proud," added the skipper who finished as the tournament's leading scorer with nine goals to his name. India also bagged the prize for the team that scored the most goals in the tournament, at 29.