Muscat: Closing model champions India defeated China 2-0 to beget a consolation bronze medal at the females’s Asia Cup hockey tournament right here on Friday.
The Indians left in the abet of the frustration of their semifinal defeat to Korea and managed the court cases in the first two quarters, scoring two objectives in the plan, to plod into half time with a 2-0 lead in opposition to China.
They, on the opposite hand, failed to score any longer objectives in the 2d half.
The Indians began brightly and earned a few penalty corners and from one such issue, Sharmila Devi gave her facet the lead in the 13th minute, scoring from a rebound after Gurjit Kaur’s initial flick became once saved by the Chinese language defence.
The _ medal comes home! __
Now not the stop we envisioned, nonetheless, on the opposite hand, a fighting demonstrate from our #TeamInBlue and we stop the tournament on a excessive! ___#IndiaKaGame #WAC2022 pic.twitter.com/bBBvsXC5V5
— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) January 28, 2022
India continued in the identical vein in the 2d quarter and had the better portion of probabilities.
The Indians saved up the stress on the Chinese language defence with relentless raids and secured one more penalty nook in the 19th minute which became once transformed by Gurjit with a amazing lumber-flick to invent the scoreline 2-0.
China spoke back with out warning, securing a penalty nook which became once brilliantly saved away by India captain and goalkeeper Savita Punia.
Down by two objectives, China came out with more intent after the change of ends and tried to keep stress on the Indian defence nonetheless to no avail.
The Indians saved up the stress on the Chinese language defence at the originate of the fourth and final quarter nonetheless failed to originate any obvious decrease probabilities.
China earned a penalty nook 10 minutes sooner than time nonetheless the Indians defended in numbers to thwart any hazard to their castle.
Against the stop of the match, China pressed laborious and secured three consecutive penalty corners with two minutes left in the clock nonetheless lacked in final execution as the possibilities went wasted.
Japan shall be up in opposition to Korea in the summit clash afterward Friday.
Lack of match observe attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic after finishing a historic fourth at the Tokyo Olympics, cost defending champions India dearly as they produced inconsistent performances in essential matches to wreck out of the title wander.
After thrashing lowly Malaysia 9-0 in their opener, India suffered a 0-2 defeat in opposition to Asian Video games champions Japan sooner than beating Singapore 9-1 to qualify for the semifinals.
But in the semifinals, some sloppy defending and unhappy penalty nook conversions keep paid to India’s hopes as they had been overwhelmed 2-3 by Korea.
