It was a perfect display of attacking hockey as the Indian strikers toyed with the Malaysian defence with short passes, one-touch ball delivery to pump five beautiful field goals.
India conceded a surprise early goal but made a fine comeback by pumping in four quick goals to beat minnows Scotland 4-1 in their opening match of Hockey World League semi-finals in London.
India eked out a 4-2 win via penalty over Great Britain in the FIH Hockey Pro League on Saturday.
India's other gold medals came in 1966 and 1998, both times in Bangkok.
The 2020 Olympics will be be held from July 24 to August 9 next year with the preliminary rounds of hockey for both men and women scheduled to start on July 25.
Indian men's hockey team finished a disappointing fourth at the Commonwealth Games as it struggled to breach a stout England defence to lose the bronze medal match 1-2, in Gold Coast, on Saturday.
While India downed China, Ashari struck twice in Malaysia's 3-1 win over Pakistan.
Pillay said fitness is the key asset of the Manpreet Singh-led side going into the Games
A dominant India hammered arch-rivals Pakistan 5-1 with SV Sunil striking twice in a round-robin league match of the Sultan Azlan Cup hockey tournament in Ipoh on Tuesday. The highlight of the match was four fantastic field goals from India while the other came from a penalty corner conversion. After their scrappy win over Canada in the last match, the Indians rose to the occasion and looked more organised and purposeful against Pakistan. It took India just four minute to take the lead through Manpreet Singh, who scored with a fierce reverse shot from a tight angle after being fed by Sunil. But Pakistan equalised three minutes later when skipper Muhammad Irfan (7th minute) converted the second of their successive penalty corners. India restored their lead in the 10th minute through Sunil, who scored with a deft touch off Manpreet's shot from outside the circle.
Captain Harmanpreet Singh scored a late equaliser to salvage a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Argentina.
India will seek to end 43 years of hurt when they begin the Hockey World Cup campaign against South Africa on Wednesday.
A round-up of Sunday's action in the men's hockey World Cup, in Rourkela.
'We need to play attacking hockey, our strength. When we try to play defensive, we tend to be too much defensive which provides more chances to opponents. We need to put pressure on them (from the start)'
As per safety norms, they are also changing the grip of their sticks regularly while there is a temperature check every day.
After a dismal eighth place finish in Rio Games, much is expected from the Manpreet-led side.
The two sides have shared the spoils since 2013. India and Netherlands have faced each other nine times since 2013, winning four apiece while one game finished in a draw.
An impressive India thrashed Canada 5-1 to top Pool C and seal a direct berth in the quarter-finals of the men's hockey World Cup.
Australia scored the first goal of the game in the first quarter, having started the final on a dominating note.
Iyer's 147 is the highest T20 score by an Indian and in the process he surpassed wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant, who had scored an unbeaten 128 for Delhi Daredevils in the IPL.
India kept themselves in the hunt for the knock-out stage after eking out a hard-fought 3-2 win over Canada in a Pool C match of the Hero FIH Junior Men's hockey World Cup in New Delhi.
The Indians were undone by a horrendous stopwatch faux pas by technical officials in the shoot-out against Australia
High on confidence after decimating a high-profile Royal Challengers Bangalore, an upbeat Gujarat Lions will be aiming to lift their game a notch higher when they face title contenders Mumbai Indians in an Indian Premier League encounter, in Rajkot on Saturday.
India would look to seal a direct quarterfinal berth with a win against Canada in their final Pool C match of the men's hockey World Cup on Saturday.
While Belgium dominated the first half, India did well to roar back in the second session. Belgium went into the half-time break with a 1-0 lead, but India fought back well to keep pressure on the opponents in the 2nd half.
Fitness is key to any team's success in fast-paced modern-day hockey and the Indian men's national team can be rated among the top five.
Sreejesh to lead India as team will experiment with different combinations and execute new tactics
A historic bronze-winning show by the men's team and an outstanding fourth place finish for the women's team infused fresh life into the game which was in danger of slipping into oblivion.
India bounced back in style to beat title holders Australia 3-1 via a shoot-out after both the teams were locked 2-2 at the end of regulation time.
An important factor in India's stupendous success in 2021 was the way the government opened its coffers to support athletes.
Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh will be among a host of former stars in the India Maharaja team which will take part in the inaugural edition of the Legends League Cricket (LLC), starting on January 20 in Oman.
India produced an impressive display but wasted chances galore as they held defending champions and world number two Australia to a 1-1 draw in their opening pool match of the Hockey World League Final, in Bhubaneswar, on Friday.
A dominant India triumphed in the third Sultan of Johor Cup with a thumping 3-0 victory over hosts Malaysia in the title clash of the Under-21 hockey tournament Johor Baharu.
Was it badminton sensation PV Sindhu, who became the first Indian to win the World Championships gold medal? Or is it the young shooting progidy Saurabh Chaudhary? Or his India colleague Elavenil Valarivan, who recently took over as World No 1? What about India's heroes on the cricketing field -- Virat Kohli? Rohit Sharma?
The Indian men's hockey team's biggest gain this year was the emergence of some talented fresh faces.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
Riding on impressive shows by Pardeep Narwal and Rohit Kumar, Patna Pirates' routed Puneri Paltan 40-21 to enter the finals of the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League in New Delhi on Friday. Narwal and Kumar were the star raiders of the match but Patna Pirates' defence also joined the party to win a lop-sided match in the match. The Pune side was all-out on three occasions in the match. The first two came in the first 12 minutes of the match. The all-out assault launched by the Pirates was so severe that Puneri Paltan literally lost heart after they trailed 7-25 at the break. They did come back for a brief period in the second half to inflict an all-out on their rivals but that was all they could manage. It all started with Pardeep Narwal targeting rival skipper Manjeet Chhillar with his first raid with a touch. It was Pardeep Narwal's guile versus the Puneri Paltan defence and every time he came up trumps in the first 15 minutes. His 6-point super raid with four victims and two for the second all-out was the best show by a raider till date and more importantly it came at a crucial juncture.
Shreyas Iyer slammed 178, while captain Siddhesh Lad made a responsible 130, to power Mumbai to an imposing score of 439 for eight against Baroda, on Day 1 of the Ranji Trophy match.
Rishabh Pant cracked a fourth successive fifty-plus score to lead Delhi's eight-wicket rout of Tamil Nadu while Baroda, Mumbai and Punjab also secured wins in their respective Super League matches of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy, in Kolkata on Sunday.
Central Zone upstaged star-studded North Zone by four runs in a close match to remain in the hunt for the title in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Inter Zonal League at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
The hosts will face arch-rivals Pakistan for a place in the final, the latter scoring 4-2 upset win over eight-time champions The Netherlands earlier in the day.
