Mumtaz hits first on home turf, helps Indian junior win
LUCKNOW: Playing before the home crowd has always been a pressure situation for one, and that too remained the case with local girl and junior India forward Mumtaz Khan in the opening ‘Test’ match of women’s hockey against France here last week, where she couldn’t make use of the opportunities.
But after scoring a goal against the visitors in the second match at Gorakhpur on Sunday, which India won by 3-2, Mumtaz felt confident even to excel before her own people.
On Tuesday she lived up to the expectation, helping hosts take 2-1 lead in the four-match series, winning the third match by 2-0.
Mumtaz, who ran like a welloiled machine on Tuesday, scored in the 42nd minute, whereas Sharmila Devi netted the second one almost at the stroke of hooter, at the Padma Shri Mohammad Shahid Synthetic Hockey Stadium, which also witnessed a sizeable crowd cheering the two sides under the lights.
Indian juniors dominated the proceedings from the very start, and managed to break into the rivals’ citadel for a number of occasions, but an agile France custodian Lucie Erhmann handled them well, striking out a series of hits from Indians.
Desperation of scoring a goal writ large on the faces of the Indian eves as they always found the French defense a tough nut to crack in the first two quarters. But after a change in the ends, their repeated efforts paid rich dividends with pint-sized Mumtaz easily dodging the second keeper Mathilde Petriaux to score team’s first goal in the 42nd minute.
The solitary goal lead, however, boosted the confidence of Indian girls, who raised their attacks and in the last quarter the ball was almost confined to French half.
Like they did in the first match, missing all six penalty corners, Indian juniors on Tuesday too failed to covert even one out of five penalty corners, including the last one minutes before the hooter.
Though French women managed a few chances in the dying minutes too, they couldn’t get past India’s goalkeeper Bichu Devi Kharibam, who stood like a rock under the bars.
At the time when the match looked almost finished and the clock started ticking for the finish, a combine effort of Indian forwards proved worthy with Mumtaz sending a quick pass for Sharmila, who made no mistake in pushing the ball home (2-0) with only 20 seconds left in the game.
The last match of the series will take place on Wednesday at 5.00 p.m.