Cheered on by almost 5000 vocal supporters, packed into a space meant for less than 3000, on their feet all through, the Indian women dished out their best performance in the competition so far to register a comprehensive 3-0 against China and go on top of the table of the Asian Champions Trophy here on Saturday.
With four wins in as many games, India is the only unbeaten team here at the moment and is assured of a semifinal spot. It was a display of attacking hockey and tight defending, with India earning its first two penalty corners 40 seconds into the game. Although they didn’t result in a goal – India had to wait till the 32nd minute for a Sangita Kumari smash to open the scoring – it showed the host’s intent against the Olympic silver medalist side.
Before the India clash, China barely allowed its opponent to have sight of the goal, conceding just one to Japan. Not surprisingly, this was expected to be India’s toughest test, and the girls passed with flying colours. In the 4th minute, Sharmila Devi’s pass was deflected into the circle with the slightest of touches by Sunelita Toppo, only for Deepika to hit straight to the goalkeeper in a one-on-one situation.
Lalremsiami, who had been in middling form so far, was a changed player, running down the flanks, both feeding and taking shots at the goal. Penalty corners in the 21st and 26th minutes were saved by goalkeeper Ting Li, but with India’s constant pressure, it was only a matter of time before the deadlock was broken. In fact, credit should go to both the Chinese goalkeepers for denying India at least four direct goals.
Post the break, India raised its game a notch further and was immediately rewarded with Sangita’s goal after Sushila Chanu’s well-placed pass. “Our hunger to score is fuelled further during half-time,” Sangita quipped after the game. Two minutes later, Ishika Chaudhary’s brilliant long pass along the right sideline across the length of the field found Salima Tete, but a tad extra second dribbling allowed the Chinese defence to group. She redeemed herself immediately, however, with India’s second goal.
India’s dominance can be gauged from the fact that China had just 15 circle entries and one PC to India’s 22 and six PCs. China took off its goalkeeper in the 57th minute in a last-ditch attempt to score but ended up conceding a PC and goal in the final minute. The result gives India the luxury of using its final league game against Japan on Sunday to fine-tune the niggles.
The results: Japan 2 (Miyu Hasegawa, Shiho Kobayakawa) bt Malaysia 1 (Nur Mohammed); Korea 4 (Seungae Park, Mihyang Park, Dahye Seo, Suyeon Jin) bt Thailand 0; India 3 (Sangita Kumari, Salima Tete, Deepika) bt China 0.
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