Young striker Deepika slammed five goals as defending champions India thrashed minnows Thailand 13-0 to virtually assure a semifinal berth at the women’s Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament on Thursday. It was a completely one-sided match as the Indians found the net at will, with Thailand failing to take a single shot at the opposition goal. Deepika (3rd, 19th, 43rd 45th, 45th minutes) found the net five times, while Preeti Dubey (9th, 40th), Lalremsiami (12, 56th) and Manisha Chauhan (55th, 58th) scored a brace each.
Beauty Dung Dung (30th) and Navneet Kaur (53rd) were the other goal getters for India who registered their third consecutive win in the round-robin league stage.
India had earlier defeated Malaysia 4-0 before eking out a close 3-2 win over South Korea.
The Indians will next play Olympic silver medallists China on Saturday.
India are now in the second spot in the standings with nine points, the same as China who, however, are on the top on the basis of a better goal difference. China have a goal difference of + 21 as against +18 of India.
The top four teams out of six at the end of round-robin league stage will qualify for the semifinals. It was complete domination from India from start to finish as they continuously toyed with the Thai defence, which looked clueless against the home team’s relentless attacks.
The Indians also improved on the penalty corner front, converting five out of 12 PCs they secured in the match.
It took India just three minutes to take the lead through a fine field goal by Deepika. She beautifully controlled a defence spitting pass from Neha and positioned herself perfectly to find the back of the net with a reverse hit.
Minutes later, Manisha Chauhan got a free shot inside the circle but she couldn’t connect the ball properly.
In the ninth minute, Preeti doubled India’s lead, tapping in Sangita Kumari’s pass from close range.
Three minutes later, Lalremsiami scored from a rebound after skipper Salima Tete’s initial try was saved by Thai goalkeeper Siraya Yimkrajang.
India continued to mount raids and secured their first penalty corner in the 17th minute but the Thai custodian made a triple save.
In the 19th minute, Deepika scored her second goal of the day, again with a fine shot from the top of the circle.
The Indians then wasted three penalty corners before scoring from the next set piece just at the stroke of half-time through Beauty, who found the net from a goal-mouth melee as the hosts went into the breather with a comfortable 5-0 lead.
An unmarked Preeti beat the onrushing Thai goalie neatly and found the net in the 40th minute for her second goal of the match.
Minutes later, Deepika converted a penalty corner with a flick to the top right corner of Thai goal.
Within a span of two minutes, Deepika scored two more goals — one from field play and the next from penalty corner — to hand India a comprehensive 9-0 lead at the end of the third quarter.
After resumption, Navneet scored with a reverse hit after receiving a pass from Sushila Delvi.
Five minutes from the final hooter, Manisha converted India’s 10th penalty corner before Lalremsiami deflected in Udita’s slap shot from another set piece in the next minute.
Manisha registered her name again in the scoresheet two minutes from full time from field play.
In other matches of the day, Malaysia beat Korea 2-1 while China continued their unbeaten run by defeating Japan by the same margin.
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