Mumbai: The seasoned Mandeep Singh was lurking near the penalty spot, away from the attention of the Sri Lanka defenders crowded inside their own shooting circle. Abhishek managed to get the ball to the seasoned striker and Mandeep made no mistake, hammering home for India’s first goal within five minutes.

Asian Games hockey: India thrash Sri Lanka 16-1 for second big win

Often, a goal is celebrated with gusto. Mandeep merely smiled and gave a round of high-fives to his teammates. It was a rather muted celebration of India’s opening goal in their Asian Games Pool A match against Sri Lanka at the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium on Tuesday.

India kept repeating the low-key celebration as they thrashed Sri Lanka 16-1, their second comfortable win.

Two days earlier they beat unfancied Indonesia 13-1 to get their title defence off to a perfect start. The goals continued to flow against Sri Lanka, whom India had beaten 20-0 the last time they met at the Asian Games – in 2018.

On paper, there was no expectation that world No.39 Sri Lanka will put up any fight against continental powerhouse India, who are looking to successfully defend their Asiad gold medal for the first time. There were, however, expectations of India to fine-tune strategies and performance before they come up against the stronger teams.

India did not even have to rely much on captain Harmanpreet Singh to score off penalty corners with second-choice drag-flicker Jugraj Singh coming good twice in the match. Jugraj converted two penalty strokes as well, finishing with four goals.

It was not that Harmanpreet was being kept out of action. But it seemed that the 30-year-old was testing himself with a variation in his run-up.

Normally, the drag-flick stalwart would take a few big strides before powering home his attempt. International teams are aware that India, almost entirely, rely on their captain during penalty corners in pressure situations. The opposition runners thus charge towards him once the ball is injected.

On Tuesday, Harmanpreet shortened his run-up to no more than one stride to take away time from the defenders to narrow his angles. That strategy worked well against Sri Lanka with Harmanpreet netting a brace.

Another positive was that most of India’s tally came through field goals. After Mandeep’s opening goal with a fine finish, Abhishek and Dilpreet Singh showed their skill and flair inside the shooting circle, both picking up hat-tricks.

The experienced Manpreet Singh also chipped in with a goal, as did Sukhjeet Singh and Vivek Sagar Prasad, with India relying on eight different scorers in their romp to victory.

Sri Lanka did manage a consolation goal in the 50th minute through Suresh Rathnayake, who scored at a time when the Indians had switched off for what they thought was a foul in the build-up.

The Indians cannot afford such errors going forward.

The first two matches have been a vital testing phase for India, who are looking to erase memories of last month’s disastrous World Cup campaign in which they finished eighth. Importantly though they are eyeing a gold medal to seal automatic qualification for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

The games against Indonesia and Sri Lanka gave the team a chance to adjust to the pace and bounce of the new pitch laid for the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya. This should come handy as they will face tougher opponents in the next two Pool A matches in four-time winners South Korea and 2018 champions Japan.