India women’s hockey team beat Malaysia 2-0 in Asia Cup

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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Indian women’s hockey team has once again proved their mettle by thrashing Malaysia 2-0 in their last pool match in the Women's Asia Cup held at Kakamigahara Kawasaki Stadium on Tuesday. With this win, India is on the top of points table with nine points and has secured a place in the quarterfinals.

This win over Malaysia is India's third successive win in the pool stage and has ensured a place in the quarter-finals as they currently have nine points and are heading the points table. Vandana Katariya (54th minute) and Gurjit Kaur (55th) managed to score for this clean win. 

In the first quarter, both the teams played vigilantly. While Malaysia were playing defensive hockey, India proceeded patiently, avoiding any unforced errors that might be of advantage to Malaysia. The first quarter ended in a deadlock and India was put on the back foot when they conceded the first penalty corner of the match in the initial minutes of the second quarter. However, Rajani Etimarpu saved that brilliantly and in the next few minutes, both teams were seen trading penalty corners. India earned one penalty corner whereas Malaysia clinched two but they didn't lead to any goals. 

In the third quarter as well, both the teams played out evenly and another penalty corner was won by Malaysia, but, they did not capitalize the penalty, resulting in a stalemate in the end of the third quarter. 

With the beginning of fourth quarter, India turned the match around and came up with a strong finish. In the 54th minute, a sensational first goal was scored by forward Vandana Katariya which gave India a 1-0 lead. Quickly in the next minute, dragflicker Gurjit Kaur converted a penalty corner and took India's lead to 2-0, putting pressure on the Malaysian side. 

Even though in the beginning of the fourth quarter, Malaysia won a penalty corner but their poor conversion left no hopes. In the dying minutes of the match, the Malaysians made attempts to score desperately but the Indian defence kept away the attackers to win the game 2-0.

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