A dominant India defeated Malaysia 6-0 to register their second consecutive win in the women’s hockey competition at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Friday. The Indians continued from where they left against Singapore in their campaign opener and pumped in four goals in the first quarter of the Pool A match. Monika (7th minute) opened the scoring for India before vice-captain Deep Grace Ekka (8th), Navneet Kaur (11th), Vaishnavi Vitthal Phalke (15th), Sangita Kumari (24th) and Lalremsiami (50th) also found the back of the net.
(Medals Tally | Asian Games 2023 Full Schedule)
Brimming with confidence after the 13-0 win over Singapore, the seventh ranked Indians maintained their momentum and completely dominated the play from the word go.
As expected, India took the lead in the seventh minute through Monika’s field strike before Deep Grace doubled the score a minute later, converting their first penalty corner.
In the 20th minute, Lalremsiami’s tomahawk from top of the circle, after getting a loose ball from midfield, went just wide.
But a minute later, Navneet Kaur’s brilliant stick work made it 3-0 in the favour of India. She got the ball inside the circle and converted after Deep Grace failed to score with a reverse tomahawk.
India secured another penalty corner in the 15th minute and Vaishnavi found the net from the chance to hand her side a 4-0 lead.
India extended their lead in the 24th minute through Sangita. Neha got the ball into the D and passed it to Sangita, who found the back of the net with a reverse hit.
India secured a penalty corner in the 27th minute but Deepika’s try was denied by a brilliant save by Malaysia goalkeeper AB Mashitah.
Seconds before half time, Lalremsiami secured another penalty corner for India but it went in vain as the Savita Punia-led side led 5-0 at the break.
Malaysia started on a much better note after the change of ends and looked more compact in defence, while trying for attacking runs in between.
But India got their act together and started to mount raids on the Malaysian goal. In the 38th minute, Deepika’s reverse hit goal from top of the circle was disallowed after the video umpire found out that she was marginally outside the circle when she took the hit.
India secured a few penalty corners but wasted all of them.
In the 50th minute Lalremsiami scored India’s sixth goal from a field play.
In the remaining minutes of the match, India secured two more penalty corners but failed to find the back of the net.
India will next play Korea in their next pool match on Sunday.
Bridge: Indian men maintain second place
The Indian men’s team continued their excellent show by maintaining their second position but the women and mixed sides could not make much headway in the bridge competition of the Asian Games on Friday. The men’s outfit is firmly entrenched in the second position with 155.09 points after playing 140 boards.
Japan are leading the table with 155.49 points after playing 140 boards.
The Indian men started the day blanking Pakistan 20-0 in the 1-9 round robin phase. They made light work of Chinese Taipei in the round robin 1-10, registering a 15.26-4.74 win.
They concluded a fruitful day going past Hong Kong 15.26-4.75 in the round robin 1-11 segment.
However, the Indian women started day with a heavy 4.74-15.26 defeat against Hong Kong in the round robin 1-6 session.
But they managed a brighter end to the day, narrowly defeating Singapore 10.33-9.67 in the next round.
It meant that the women could not move up from their previous day’s seventh place, and have 52.83 total points from 98 boards.
Like the men’s team, India’s mixed outfit too started the day with a win over Pakistan, beating the arch-rivals 10.66-9.34 points.
In the afternoon session, the Indians gave no chance to Thailand while scoring a 16.72-3.28 victory in the round robin 1-10 phase.
In the final match of the day, the Indians put it past Thailand 10.97-9.03.
The Indian mixed team is now placed at fifth with 128.81 points having played 140 boards.
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