Bangladesh hockey team qualify for Asian Games

Bangladesh national hockey team confirmed their Asian Games berth following a 3-1 win over Sri Lanka in their qualifying campaign in Bangkok on Tuesday.

The second successive win took the men in red and green to the semifinals of the nine-team qualifiers with a match in hand against Singapore, which will be played on May 12.

The charges of Iman Gobinathan Krishnamurthy initially some challenge from an ever-improving Sri Lanka team before Bangladesh took the lead in the 18th minute through Ashraful Islam's penalty corner.

Having shrugged off the Sri Lankan challenge, Bangladesh soon established their foothold in the match to double the lead in the 23rd minute, with Khorshedur Rahman converting a penalty stroke.

After resumption, Sri Lanka regrouped to put pressure on Bangladesh and earned penalty corners but the Bangladeshi backline negotiated well.

However, Sri Lanka pulled back a goal in the 44th minute to bring some excitement into the match before Bangladesh took the match away with Roman Sarkar scoring the team's third goals in the 53rd minute, keeping Bangladesh's nine-year winning run over the island nation intact.