The Indian women’s hockey team will look to win their first championship in Harendra Singh bear the crown as they take on China in the final of the Asian Champions Trophy which is going on in Rajgir, Bihar today.
The match will start at 4.45 PM IST.
After defeating Japan by 2-0 in the semifinal on Tuesday (Yesterday) Salima Tete and Company made it to the final. Including a 3-0 win over their final opponents China in the group stage, Indian Hockey team have won all their six matches in the tournament.
Yesterday, Navneet Kaur (48′) scored from the spot in the last quarter to break the deadlock followed by a goal from Lalremsiami (56′), to validate their spot in the final.
India began the game with a high press, creating many circle entries and goal chances but fight to beat the in-form Japanese goalkeeper Yu Kudo. India attacks resulted in multiple penalty corner chances, but mistakes glided in trapping and the probabilities went for a toss.
Within two minutes of beginning of last quarter, the ball fell to Sangita Kumari at the goal line from penalty corner but goalkeeper Kudo was their to bail the Indian team out again. Second time Deepika was fouled in the circle and India were awarded a penalty stroke. Navneet Kaur stepped up to beat the Japanese keeper from the spot who got a big hand on the ball but could not send it away.
Within five minutes to go in the match, Sunelita Toppo be on fired past two defenders on the right wing and cut the ball back to Lalremsiami, who converted the chance to India’s lead double and do away with Japan’s hopes.
It was versus Japan only that India lost earlier this year in Ranchi which resulted in their dream of participating in Olympic crushed.
In the third-place playoff match, Japan will play with Malaysia who had lost their semifinal against China by 3-1.
