Times Of India

BOSTON: India’s hope of making the semifinals of the Women’s Junior Hockey World Cup went up in smoke after suffering a heart-breaking 2-3 loss to defending champions Korea in the last medal round league fixture.

Seul Ki Cheon fired a hat trick of penalty corners to led Korea to the last-four stage.

Rani Devi (11th minute) and Monika Badran (29th) were the goal scorers for India.

India will now have to fight for the ninth and tenth position.

Contrary to the result, it was India which took the lead in the 11th minute when Rani found the target off a Ranjita Devi pass. Korea retaliated soon with a penalty corner and Cheon flicked past Indian custodian Jasdeep Kaur to draw level six minutes later.

Cheon was again on the mark in the 23rd minute from Korea’s second penalty corner awarded because of a wrong tackle in the Indian striking circle by defender Joydeep Kaur.

However, India restored parity in the 29th minute from Monika’s stick to see both the sides go into the breather locked at 2-2.

The second half progressed with a lot of unpredictability which saw India attack for most of the time but it was Korea which found the match winner in the 53rd minute from Cheon’s fierce drag flick to the left of Jasdeep.