Muscat (Oman): With bundle of surprise and very first time, Indian and Pakistan were declared as the joint title holders of the 5th Men`s Hero Asian Champions Trophy Muscat 2018 hockey tournament after the final was dumped due to bad weather conditions here on Sunday.

India Men were looking to defend their title which they held back in Kuantan, Malaysia in 2016 when they defeated arch-rivals Pakistan 3-2 in the Final.

However, the weather conditions here killed a joy as heavy rainfall made it hard for both the teams to begin the Final here at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex.

It is noted that World No. 5 India had earlier cemented their passage through to the Final of the 5th Men`s Hero Asian Champions Trophy Muscat 2018 after remaining unbeatable in the competition with having five wins and a draw in their six matches. They defeated hosts Oman 11-0, Pakistan 3-1, Japan 9-0, while a match was draw with 0-0 against Malaysia. They crushed South Korea 4-1 in the round robin stages.

Worth mention here the Indian team was also the highest scoring team in the competition. They scored a total of 30 goals in six matches. Harmanpreet Singh for India scored the most goals. He hit six goals.
On the other hand for India forwards Mandeep Singh and Dilpreet Singh scored five each.

Earlier on Sunday, Malaysia finished at the third place as they beat Japan 3-2 in Penalty Shootout after the scores remained 2-2 at the closing stages of regulation time in the bronze medal clash.