Indian thrashes Indonesia <br> 8-0 in opener

The Indian side, ranked highest in the competition at ninth, completely dominated the match against the home team, which does not even feature in the FIH rankings chart.

India's Gurjit Kaur (centre) celebrates after scoring a goal against Indonesia.

Drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur scored a hat-trick as India women thrashed Indonesia 8-0 to begin its Asian Games campaign on a rousing note on Sunday.

The Indian side, ranked highest in the competition at ninth, completely dominated the match against the home team, which does not even feature in the FIH rankings chart.

Gurjit found the target in the 16th, 22nd and 57th minutes while Vandana Katariya (13th and 27th) struck twice. Udita (6th), Lalremsiami (24th) and Navneet Kaur (50th) were the other Indian scorers.

India had as many as 31 shots at Indonesian goal while the host did not have any in the whole 60 minutes of four equal quarters.

Read: As it happened on day one of the Asian Games

India got as many as 19 penalty corners but could convert only three, all through Gurjit.

India was on an attacking mode from the start and got a penalty corner in the fifth minute but it was wasted.

The next minute, India took the lead with Udita scoring a fine field goal as she lobbed the ball into the net from close range off a rebound from Namita Toppo.

In the 13th minute, Vandana made it 2-0 for India with a superb goal after a slick interchange of passes.

Just a minute into the second quarter, India took 3-0 lead with Gurjit finding the target with her drag-flick off a penalty corner. Four minutes later, Gurjit’s another penalty corner was stopped by the Indonesian goalkeeper.

But in the 22nd minute, Gurjit’s lethal drag-flick could not be denied as it sounded the boards to make it 4-0 for India.

The goal spree continued with Lalremsiami making it 5-0 two minutes later and in the 27th minute, India was 6-0 up as Vandana scored her second goal of the match through a penalty corner variation.

The Indians led 6-0 at half time but they could score only two goals in the last two quarters.

In the 42nd minute, an Indian attempt from a penalty corner was saved by the Indonesian goalkeeper who stretched herself to stop two rebounds that resulted from the shot.

India scored in the 50th minute with Navneet tapping in the ball from close range. Three minutes from the final hooter, Gurjit completed his hat-trick with a powerful flighted shot from a penalty corner which gave the Indonesian goalkeeper no chance.

India, which won a bronze in the 2014 Asian Games, will take on Kazakhstan in its next match.