Rani Ramphal scored a brace of goals, before and after Jasjeet Kaur and Saba Anjum respectively scored goal apiece, to give India a thrilling 4-3 win over the fighting South Africa in the ninth place decider of the Rosario World Cup.
This win enabled India to notch up two rungs up in the ultimate ranking compared to 2006 venture. At Madrid in the last edition, India finished 11th, now at Rosario ninth, not a bad result considering inter alia India is 13th in the FIH ranking.
After South Africa surprised lethergic goalie Deepika Murthy, deflecting a mid-field through pass, Rani came on her own. First she deflected Jasjeet’s powerful shot off a penalty corner, within seconds later, latched on to a loose ball, sidestepped a defender on the top of the circle before unleashing a reverse had shot from top of the circle. This two goals in a minute, must rank a great moment of the world cup.
Then Jasjeet scored off India’s penalty corner, before Saba Anjum guided Jasjeet’s drag from the midfield for India’s fourth goals. Sitting pretty at 4-2, India would not have expected a fight on the hands, but it was. Africa came with the third goal and then two minutes before the hooter almost scored a goal, but it was disallowed on video referring.
The goal went into the net from a stick raised above the shoulder. The cricket-like hook shot was disallowed by the third umpire.
After losing first three matches badly, India managed to win two of the next three matches to finish ninth.
Rani Ramphal has scored seven goals, scoring in five of the six matches.