India, June 4 -- The Indian men's hockey team produced a clinical display, thrashing Chinese Taipei 13-1 in its last Pool A match to storm into the semifinals of the U-18 Asia Cup 2026 here on Wednesday.

India ended their pool engagements with wins against Kazakhstan, Korea and Chinese Taipei, while losing to hosts Japan. It gave them nine points from four matches.

The team's attacking prowess was on full display against Chinese Taipei, with Ashish Tani Purti emerging as the standout performer with a hat-trick (27th, 35th, 42nd minutes), while Gazee Khan (40th, 44th), Siddharth Ben (30th, 52nd) and Rahul Yadav (20th, 54th) scored a brace each.

Karan Gautam (7th), Premchand Soy (11th), captain Ketan Kushwaha (13th) and Varinder Singh (5...