Asian Champions Trophy: India, Pakistan declared joint winners due to rain

MUSQAT, Oman (92 News) – Rain forced the much-awaited clash between arch-rivals India and Pakistan to be called-off at the Men's Hockey Asian Champions Trophy in Muscat on Sunday. The two teams were declared joint winners of the fifth edition of the continental event. Both India and Pakistan have won the tournament twice before this edition and they will share the honours this time around. Due to the heavy downpour, the match was in no position to begin even after the delay of more than an hour from the scheduled start time of 10:40 pm, and the tournament director decided to forfeit the final after a discussion with both the coaches of India and Pakistan. Earlier in the third-place playoff, Malaysia defeated Asian Games gold medalists Japan 3-2 in a shoot-out after the contest was ended at 2-2 in the regulation time. It was a rematch of the Asiad final and Malaysia were able to take the revenge for the loss in Jakarta. On Saturday, India set up the summit clash with Pakistan by beating Japan 3-2 in a hard-fought contest, while Pakistan got the better of Malaysia in a shoot-out (3-1) in the other semi-final.