Hockey teams score big wins
Birmingham, July 31: Vandana Katariya scored a brace as the Indian women’s hockey team defeated Wales 3-1 to record their second successive win in Pool A at the Commonwealth Games here. India scored all their three goals from penalty corners with Vandana finding the net twice, while Gurjit Kaur fired in a fierce drag-flick on Saturday.
Men’s team also notched up an ever more dominant and fluent 11-0 win over Ghana. They were ahead 3-0 after the first quarter itself and 5-0 after the first half. Harmanpreet Singh struck a hat-trick while Jugraj helped himself to a couple of goals. Abhishek opened the scoring for the Indians while Shamsher, Akashdeep, Lalit, Mandeep and Varun Kumar were the others who got on the board. Krishan Pathak also did his bit to have a clean sheet.
The Indian women were the much better side on display as they controlled the game from the start to finish, barring a few phases.
Penalty corner conversion still continued to be a concern for India as they made use of three out of the seven they earned in the match.
Wales, on the other hand, utilised the only chance they got in the game with Xenna Hughes on the target.
The Indians attacked the Wales citadel continuously from the world go but they failed to find the finishing touches from the moves.
Wales goalkeeper Roseanne Thomas played a superb game and if not for her, the scoreline could have been much bigger in favour of India.
The Indians dominated in terms of ball possession and attacking play but their efforts yielded no result in the first quarter.