Asian Champions Trophy: Team India in a brilliant game outplayed China 3-0 in the Asian Women’s Hockey Champions Trophy in Rajgir. With this win, Team India has assured its place for the semifinals. They will take on Japan in the semifinals now.
Defending champion India on Saturday upset Olympic silver medalist China 3-0 and qualified for the semi-finals of the Women’s Asian Champions Trophy (ACT) Hockey Tournament. India scored two field goals with the help of Sangeeta Kumari (32nd minute) and captain Salima Tete (37th minute) while the tournament’s top scorer Deepika (60th minute) converted a penalty corner into a goal in the last minute.
India’s dominance in the Asian Champions Trophy
This is India’s fourth successive win in the tournament against the world’s sixth team China. Now the world’s ninth team India has attained the top of the table with eight points in four matches.
China slipped to second place with six points in four matches. India will end its round-robin campaign against Japan on Sunday. The top four teams of the six-team continental tournament will qualify for the semi-finals. India adopted an aggressive approach from the very beginning and created many chances. However, it did not succeed because China’s defense in its own area was excellent.
India missed the initial penalty
India got two back-to-back penalty corners in the opening minutes of the match but the team failed on both the occasions. A few minutes later, Sharmila Devi passed the ball to Sunelita Toppo. This brought Deepika face to face with the opposition goalkeeper in an attempt to score a goal, who did not let her score. China got a penalty corner in the first quarter but the Indian defense remained strong.
The two teams came up very cautiously and India after a bright start committed some silly mistakes. It was the 21st minute when India got its second penalty corner but that didn’t matter much. Just five minutes later India came up with another penalty corner. Here, Manisha Chauhan’s flick was saved by the Chinese goalkeeper Ting Li and then Lalremsiami’s attempt to rebound was failed.
No goal could be scored in the first half.
No goal was scored in the first half. The same rhythm of the Indian team was preserved in the second half of the match, and they maintained control. Their efforts finally paid off in the 32nd minute when Sangeeta converted Sushila Chanu’s pass from midfield. Five minutes later, the Indians doubled their lead with another excellent field goal. The captain, Salima, scored the goal through efforts from Beauty Dung Dung and Preeti Dubey.
The Indians continued on top, pummeling the Chinese team. The latter tried hard to penetrate the Indian defense but could not. With no way to get a goal, China got its goalkeeper out three minutes before the end of the match and this move backfired. India scored its third goal in the last minute of the game.
In the final minute, Sangeeta earned India’s fourth penalty corner and Deepika converted it for her seventh of the tournament. Other matches of the day saw Japan defeat Malaysia 2-1 while Korea gained an upper hand in their match against Thailand that ended 4-0 in their favor.
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