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India beat Pakistan 5-3 at the Wagener Stadium in Amstelveen to finish second in Pool D and reach the second round of the FIH Hockey World Cup 2026. Harmanpreet Singh and Abhishek scored twice apiece, with Hardik Singh converting a penalty stroke. Pakistan’s tournament is over; India move into Pool E alongside England.
Amstelveen, Netherlands: They had to win, and for twenty-five minutes it looked like they might win at a canter. Then Pakistan remembered what this fixture is, and India spent the last half-hour defending a scoreline that once looked untouchable.
India arrived at their final Pool D match with the arithmetic against them. A 4-2 defeat to England had left them needing a result against the most successful nation in World Cup history, a side that had drawn 3-3 with Wales and lost to the same England. Both teams were playing for the last qualifying place in the pool. Only one of them got it.
Two Goals in Eleven Minutes
Harmanpreet Singh set the tone with the first serious chance of the match. India won a penalty corner in the fifth minute and the captain converted. Six minutes later Abhishek doubled it, and the opening quarter belonged entirely to India.
The second quarter was where the match became a spectacle. Harmanpreet struck again in the 21st minute for his second, and India led 3-0 with more than half the game still to play. It should have been the end of the contest.
Pakistan Refuse to Fold
It wasn’t. Hannan Shahid pulled one back in the 22nd minute, a goal that arrived within a minute of India’s third and changed the temperature of the match entirely. Abhishek restored the three-goal cushion in the 24th, only for Sufyan Khan to strike a minute later. Four goals in four minutes. India went to the interval 4-2 ahead having conceded twice in a quarter they had otherwise controlled, and Pakistan went in believing.
The Stroke That Bought Breathing Room
India’s fifth came early in the third quarter and it settled the outcome, if not the nerves. Hardik Singh stepped up to a penalty stroke in the 35th minute and converted, restoring a three-goal lead at a moment when the momentum had visibly shifted.
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Hannan Shahid’s second in the 46th minute set up a final quarter of genuine anxiety, and Pakistan had the chance to make it closer still. Awarded a penalty corner in the closing stages, they declined the direct drag-flick and attempted a worked variation instead. The pass broke down, India cleared, and the last minutes passed without further alarm.
India Through, Pakistan Out
The result confirms India’s place in Pool E of the second round, joining England — who won all three of their Pool D matches — and the top two finishers from Pool A, a group containing the Netherlands, Argentina, New Zealand and Japan. The top two from Pool E go straight to the semi-finals. Wales and Pakistan are both eliminated.
For India, it extends a run of dominance in a fixture that once ran the other way: they had won each of their previous three meetings with Pakistan, including 7-1 and 4-3 victories in the Pro League earlier this year. For Pakistan, a record as the most successful nation in the competition’s history counts for nothing against a pool campaign that produced a single point.
It also caps a strong forty-eight hours for Indian hockey. On Tuesday the women’s team recorded their biggest ever win at an FIH World Cup, beating South Africa 6-1.
Score: India 5 (Harmanpreet Singh 5′, 21′, Abhishek 11′, 24′, Hardik Singh 35′) beat Pakistan 3 (Hannan Shahid 22′, 46′, Sufyan Khan 25′)
Half-time: India 4-2 Pakistan
Venue: Wagener Stadium, Amstelveen
