India women’s team sets up semis clash with China

JAKARTA: India finished the group stage in women’s hockey competition on top of Pool B after a 5-0 win over Thailand to qualify for the semi-finals. After drubbing favourites South Korea in their last group tie, the match against Thailand was, as expected, a cakewalk. They will face China in the second semi-final on Wednesday with Korea playing Japan in the first the same day.

India, who finished the league stage with 12 points, however could not open their account till the middle of the third quarter and failed to convert a single penalty corner of the five they earned at the GBK hockey complex on Monday.

They scored their opening goal in the 37th minute, an aberration as they have been in menacing form and had scored a total of 33 goals before Monday’s tie and had thrashed defending champions South Korea 4-1 in the last game.

But Rani Rampal’s return to the field, after missing the last two games due to injury, was heartening. She did her bit, scoring three goals (37th, 46th and 56th minutes), to allay fears about her form. While the India captain might be in good touch, injury concerns remain. She had picked up lower back and hip injury in the first match here.

Rani conceded that the first two quarters in extreme heat were “disappointing”. “Didn’t play the first two quarters the way we would have liked to. The passing was bad and it was a wake-up call for us,” said Rani.

“But returning to the field after missing two matches was a positive. I had a slight injury and this match has brought back the rhythm somewhat,” said Rani.

Against a water-tight Thai defence, Navjot Kaur and Rani found it hard to even get close to the circle in the first two quarters and the couple of penalty corners they earned went abegging because of lack of ingenuity.

But once the opener had been scored, by Rani who smashed the ball in after Udita’s full-blooded shot had been palmed away by the daring Thai goalkeeper Alisa Narueangram, the floodgates opened and Rani, Monika (52nd) and Navjot Kaur (55th) made it a one-sided contest.

However, Rani said, “the flair was missing, and it was probably because we were playing an afternoon match.”