The Indian men’s hockey team reached the Asian Games 2026 gold-medal match after beating Pakistan 4-3 in a thrilling semi-final on Thursday, while the men’s cricket team also progressed to the final.
India raced to a 3-0 lead against Pakistan through Harmanpreet Singh’s brace and Sukhjeet Singh’s strike before Pakistan fought back to make it 3-3. With the match heading towards a shootout, Abhishek scored in the final minute to send the defending champions into Saturday’s final.
The result means both Indian hockey teams will contest the Asian Games finals at the same edition for the first time since 1998, with the women scheduled to face China on Friday.
India’s men’s cricket team, meanwhile, thrashed Sri Lanka by 124 runs to set up a gold-medal clash against Pakistan. Ishan Kishan’s unbeaten 80 helped India post 169/7 before Sri Lanka were bowled out for 45, their lowest T20I total.
Squash teams take bronze, Nitesh Siwach wins historic silver
India collected bronze medals in both squash team events. Anahat Singh, Tanvi Khanna, Joshna Chinappa and Shameena Riaz finished with the women's team bronze after a 2-1 semi-final loss to Hong Kong China.
The men’s team of Abhay Singh, Veer Chotrani, Velavan Senthilkumar and Suraj Kumar Chand also took bronze after going down 2-1 to Malaysia.
Nitesh Siwach won silver in the men’s Greco-Roman 97kg wrestling after losing 4-0 to Japan’s Yuri Nakazato in the final. The 23-year-old became India’s first Asian Games silver medallist in Greco-Roman wrestling in 64 years.
India also won two sailing medals. Manu Francis and Prince Kurisinkal Noble claimed men’s skiff silver with 23 net points, while Harshita Tomar and Shital Verma took women’s skiff bronze with 24.
Ganesh Mani Ratnam Thirumuru added a compound archery bronze, beating Vietnam’s Cong Duc Dang 149-144 in the men’s individual medal match.
India also assured itself of a men’s quadrant sepaktakraw medal by reaching the semi-finals, while Shikha Chouhan qualified for the women’s kayak single final in canoe slalom. India’s judo campaign, however, ended without a medal.