Women’s Junior Asia Cup 2015: India goes down 2-4 to China in the 3rd Pool match
Changzhou (China), 09 September 2015: : After winning two pool matches against DPR Korea and Singapore with a huge margin, India Junior Women Hockey team today went down fighting 2-4 against host nation China in their third match of the 7th Women’s Junior Asia Cup. Both the teams started with aggressive attacks and tried to dominate each other. India started the match with effective strategies and gained the ball possession in the early minutes. However, China scored three back-to-back goals through penalty corners and that made a difference between the two fighting teams.
The first half started with intense battle between the two teams and players from both sides charged on each other. China Junior Team with their early attack earned a penalty corner in the first few minutes and which was perfectly saved by goal-keeper Inderpreet Kaur. However, the opponents came back strongly and attacked from all sides towards the Indian half to create more opportunities. They earned three penalty corners in a short span of six minutes and converted all to take the score to 3-0. Bingfeng Gu (2 goals) and Qiu Guo scored the goals through penalty corners in the 10th, 11th and 15th minutes respectively for China.
After conceding three consecutive goals, Indian eves fought back with full force and earned a penalty corner, but they failed to materialise. However, in the next minute, Indian earned another penalty corner and this time drag-flicker Jaspreet Kaur converted the first goal for India in the 33rd minute. With this goal, the first half finished at 3-1 in favour of China.
In the second half, both the teams stepped in with more aggressive strategies and fought for ball possession. After series of attacks from both sides, it was India who earned the first penalty corner but could not materialise. China quickly counter-attacked on Indian side and Chenyang Guo scored a field goal in the 50th minute to increase their lead by 4-1. India again charged on Chinese circle and managed to earn another penalty corner. This time Gurjit Kaur took the shot and converted the penalty corner in their second goal in the 56th minute. In the next minute, China fought back and earned a penalty corner, but Indian custodian Inderpreet thwarted their attempt. In the last minutes, both the teams tried their level best to increase add another goal but they failed to sneak into each-other’s defence-line. By the final whistle, the score-line was 4-2 in favour for China.
The 7th Women’s Junior Asia cup 2015 is a qualification tournament for the FIH Junior World cup (women) 2016. India’s next clash will be against Malaysia on 10th September at 02:45 pm IST.