India thrash Thailand to make women’s hockey semis
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.
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 here for the first time. The confidence is high and we want to recover from the disappointments at Commonwealth Games — where India finished fourth — and the World Cup — where the team was eliminated in the quarter-finals and finished eighth.
India’s Dutch coach Sjoerd Marijne said the paucity of goals in the first two quarters was because the “players were protecting themselves from injuries and heat”
On the reason for Rani not playing the last two games, Marijne said, “It was part of our strategy to protect players for important matches. She played today and must have come into rhythm to play the semi-finals,” he said.