Times of India: Asia Cup Hockey: Indian women into semi-finals with 7-1 rout of Kazakhstan

NEW DELHI: The Indian women’s team continued its march into the semi-finals of the 2017 Asia Cup, beating Kazakhstan 7-1 to utterly dominate their quarter-final fixture in Kakamgigahara, Japan on Thursday.

Leading the way for another dominating display – which comes after India beat Singapore 10-0, China 4-1 and Malaysia 2-0 to top their pool – were the in-form Gurjit Kaur with three goals and Deep Grace Ekka and Navneet Kaur with two each.

India found themselves down in just the second minute when Kazakhstan’s Vera Domashneva netted a goal, but once Gurjit opened the scoring with a goal in the fourth minute, it was one-way traffic. Deep slotted in her first goal in the 16th minute, Navneet in the 22nd and 27th minutes, and India had pulled too far away from their opponents. Deep made it 5-0 in the 41st minute, after which Gurjit rounded off this crushing win with goals in the 42nd and 56th minutes.

Her three goals made Gurjit the leading goal-scorer for India at the Asia Cup with six.

India will play the winner of the Japan v Malaysia quarter-final in the semi-final on Friday, November 3.