A Sunil Chhetri hat-trick powered India to an easy 4-0 victory over Pakistan in its SAFF Championship opener at a rain-soaked Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Wednesday.
It was an underwhelming hat-trick — two penalties and a gift from the Pakistan goalie — but the skipper wouldn’t have minded, for the strikes took him to 90 international goals and fourth in the all-time list.
In the first half, Pakistan looked every bit the team that had arrived on the day of the match and without sufficient practise. Matters had, in fact, gotten worse for the visitors as 14 players had to be split up from the main group because of logistic reasons and that bunch ended up missing the flight from Mumbai, reaching Bengaluru barely hours before the kick-off.
