India continued their winning ways when they comfortably beat Malaysia 4-1 in their last round robin Pool ‘B’ match at the Girls U-18 Asia Cup at Bangkok today.
The goal scorers for India who led 2-0 at half time were Anupa Barla (13th & 55th min.), Poonam Rani (19th min.) and Navjot Kaur (57th min.). Nadia Khan scored the consulation goal for Malaysia in the 64th minute.
India had already qualified for the semi final on Tuesday after they had defeated China.
Today’s match was played in rain after a delayed start due to the pitch being water logged.
However, the Indian strikers led by skipper Poonam Rani and supported by Anupa Barla, Neha Goyal and Navjot Kaur made the best use of the heavy conditions.
Malaysia attempted to play full press initially but the Indian midfielders Deep Grace Ekka, Namita Toppo, Nikki Pradhan and Balvinder Kaur Mehra thwarted their onslaughts.
Indian custodian Bigan Soy was seldom tested apart from the goal scored by Malaysia in the 64th minute by Nadia Khan which was a result of a misunderstanding between the two defenders Sandeep Kaur and Jaspreet Kaur.
This was India’s fourth consecutive win in the tournament. They had earlier beaten Kazakhstan 12-0, Sri Lanka 13-0 and China 4-2 and alongwith Korea are the only undefeated team in the competition.
In the first semi final on Friday Korea will play China while India will face Japan later in the evening.