BANGKOK: Rani Ramphal led the charge with six goals as Indian eves inched closer to the semi-final by thrashing hosts Thailand 15-0 at the Women’s Asia Cup hockey tournament at the Queen Sikrit Sports Centre on Saturday.
With six points from two matches, India is now a win away from cementing their place in the knock-out stage and they have to beat either Malaysia or China in the next group outings.
India earlier steamrolled novice Singapore 13-0 in their campaign-opener on Thursday.
Ramphal won the hearts of sparse but appreciating crowd present at the ground with dazzling display and deft stick-works. After finding the back of the net twice in first half, Ramphal sounded the board four times more in the second session of the match.
Veterans Mamta Kharab and Saba Anjum accounted for three goals each, while captain Surinder Kaur, Ritu Rani and Monika Bardan also joined the party with one goal each.
Ritu first sounded the board as India surged ahead in the 11th minute, followed by another by Mamta in the first half.
Ramphal then ravaged the porous Thailand defence-line to bring her overall tally in the tournament to eight, three adrift of Korea’s Seul Ki Cheon.
Although a rustic India struggled midway through in the first half, Mamta showed her class with a deft drive off their fourth penalty corner to break the deadlock.
India was leading 6-0 during the break. Mamta scored a brace early in the second half also to swell the lead, which opened the floodgate for India.
India’s chief coach MK Kaushik introduced fresh legs in the second half and gave chance to the young players like S Sunila Kiro, Mukta Barla, Vartika and Moika Bardan.
“Fielding youngsters is worth doing. We would have liked to score 20 goals and thus put the Chinese under pressure. But over all, I am happy with the performance,” Kaushik said after the match.
India, after two days rest, will play China on Tuesday and Malaysia the next day. But Surinder’s team is expected to sail through with Malaysia standing 10 rungs below in world ranking to India’s 14th.
Meanwhile, defending champion Japan crushed Sri Lanka 20-0, while Korea defeated Hong Kong 10-0.
China opened their campaign in the tournament with a 13-0 facile victory over Singapore.