The Hindu: Olympic Test Event: Indian women start with a victory
Gurjit Kaur scores both the goals as they down Japan 2-1
The Indian women’s hockey team started its campaign in the Olympic test event with a resilient 2-1 victory over host Japan here on Saturday.
India took an early lead through penalty corner specialist Gurjit Kaur in the ninth minute, but the host equalised in the 16th through Aki Mitsuhashi’s field goal.
Gurjit stepped up again in the 35th minute to convert yet another penalty corner, which turned out to be the decisive goal in the match.
India started with an aggressive intent and had a few opportunities in the opening 10 minutes.
Timely substitutions
Both the teams, playing with 16 players as per the Olympic Games guidelines, made swift and timely substitutions throughout, and it was in the 16th minute that Japan’s substitution worked.
The 29-year-old Mitsuhashi combined well with her teammates before drawing parity.
With majority of the attacks coming from India, Japan sat back and looked to attack on the counter.
The teams have played each other frequently in the past couple of years, which showed on the field as they understood each other’s tactics well, and it meant that the teams went into the half-time level 1-1.
In the third quarter India got another penalty corner in the 35th minute.
Moment of magic
A moment of magic from Gurjit saw India regain its one-goal advantage as the 23-year-old smashed the ball into the back of the net.
The result: India 2 (Gurjit Kaur 9, 35) bt Japan 1 (Aki Mitsuhashi 16).