Ace drag-flicker Sandeep Singh scored a double as the Indian men's hockey team started their Asian Games campaign on a rousing note, blanking a lowly Hong Kong 7-0 in their first Group B match in Guangzhou on Monday.
Coach Jose Brasa's boys completely dominated their rivals in the entire 70 minutes and pumped in four and three goals respectively in each half at the Aoti Hockey Field to start their proceedings in the quadrennial mega-event in style.
India utilised three out of the five penalty corners they earned in the match with Sandeep (4th and 18th minutes) converting two and Tushar Khandker (37th) scoring from a variation.
Bharat Chikara (2nd), Sarvanjit Singh (22nd), Arjun Halappa (38th) and Shivendra Singh (48th) completed the rout for India through field strikes.
India will now face minnows Bangladesh in their group match on Wednesday.