Top five biggest wins in the history of Indian hockey

In all these matches, India scored at least 22 goals.

Indian hockey has been thriving at the international level for many decades. The men’s hockey team started competing in international tournaments soon after independence, while the women’s side gained recognition in the 1970s.

Over the years, both the male and female field hockey teams have enjoyed decent success. They’ve won trophies and participated in prominent competitions. Because of their quality, the men and women have also picked up some really dominant victories.

A few days ago, the Indian men’s junior hockey team thrashed Canada 13-1 in the Men’s Junior Hockey World Cup. But, that does not even come close to the biggest wins in Indian hockey history:

With that being said, let’s look at the top five biggest wins picked up by the senior Indian hockey teams in history:

5. India (men) 22-1 Vs Hong Kong, 1954

Back in 1954, hockey was still not recognized as an international sport. As a result, the 1954 Asian Games did not include hockey. Incidentally, the Indian men’s hockey team were arguably the strongest in those years, having won the gold medal at the 1952 Olympics.

They travelled to Hong Kong for a series against the Hong Kong national team after being unable to compete at the Asian Games. The biggest win came when the Men in Blue beat the hosts 22-1. They absolutely outclassed the Hong Kong team.

4. India (women) 22-0 Vs Hong Kong, 1982 Asian Games

It seems the Indian hockey teams really like playing against Hong Kong. 28 years after one of the biggest wins by the Indian men's hockey team, the women did them one better at the 1982 Asian Games. That was the first Asian Games that featured women’s hockey. The Indian women’s hockey team, a dominant side back then, played the first game in New Delhi against Hong Kong.

They thrilled fans with an incredible display, proving how good they really were. In the end, they won the game by the margin of 22-0. The Indian women’s hockey team scored 37 goals in five group games and ended the Games with the silver medal, losing to South Korea in the final.

3. India (men) 24-1 Vs USA, 1932 Olympics

India headed into the 1932 Olympics as the defending champions in field hockey, having won gold at the 1928 Olympics too. In that edition at Los Angeles, USA, only seven out of 15 members in the squad were of Indian origin – as the country was still under British rule. As only three nations participated in field hockey, India faced Japan and hosts USA at the event.

They defeated the hosts by an incredible margin of 24-1, securing one of the biggest wins in Indian hockey history. Star Indian player Roop Chand scored 10 goals, with Major Dhyan Chand scoring eight, Gurmeet Kular bagging five goals and Englishman Broome Pinniger getting one. That win also sealed the gold medal for India, their second at the Olympic Games.

2. India (women) 24-0 Vs Nepal, 2016 South Asian Games

India have always been the dominant force at the South Asian Games since their inception in 1984. The women’s hockey category was only started at the last edition back in 2016. The Indian women took full advantage of that to absolutely annihilate their oppositions. In their first South Asian Games match against Nepal, the Indian women put on an incredible display in Guwahati.

They won the game by the insane margin of 24-0, setting the record for the biggest win by the Indian women's hockey team in history. Punam Barla and Soundarya Yendela scored four goals each. Rani Rampal, Jaspreet Kaur, Deepika and Neha Goyal all bagged hat-tricks, while Gurjit Kaur and Preeti Dubey scored two goals each. India went on to win the gold medal in the women’s hockey category by defeating Sri Lanka 10-0 in the gold medal match.

1. India (men) 26-0 Vs Hong Kong, 2018 Asian Games

86 years after that iconic win at the 1932 Olympics, the Indian men’s hockey team broke the record for the biggest win in their history. This time, they did so with a full squad of Indian nationals. At the 2018 Asian Games, they faced Hong Kong in their second group game – having defeated Indonesia 17-0 in the opener. The Men in Blue were absolutely relentless against a shaken Hong Kong team and put 26 goals past them.

They had 13 different scorers in the game, a record in itself. Harmanpreet Singh, Rupinder Sigh and Lalit Upadhyay scored four goals each. Akashdeep Singh scored a hat-trick, while Varun Kumar and Manpreet Singh Sandhu scored two goals. Six other goalscorers scored one goal each, including the likes of Vivek Sagar Prasad and S.V. Sunil. India won the bronze medal at the end of the tournament, but this monumental win is yet to be beaten at any competitive level by any Indian hockey side.

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