S2H Team

China compounded India’s misery of failing to qualify for the forthcoming 2024 Paris Olympics with a come-from-behind 2-1 victory in an FIH Pro League match at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Saturday.

India needed to pick themselves up from the devastation in the Ranchi qualifying tournament and couldn’t have hoped for a better boost than Vandana Katariya’s spectacular goal on the stroke of the first-quarter break.

China, however, came into their own in the second half, and an equalizer with a field goal by Wen Dan on 40 minutes rewarded Australian legend and Head Coach Alyson Annan’s team for their ascendancy.

A slap-hit by Gu Bingfeng on a rebound in the 52nd minute following five re-awards to take China’s PC count to eight brought up the match-winner.

For much of the match, circle entries at either end didn’t produce goal-mouth action but after Vandana’s goal, and some soul-searching at half-time in either camp, the trend began to change.

China coming into the match, their spot in the Olympics secured courtesy of the Asian Games gold medal at home in Hangzhou last year, are expectedly in an experimental mode. Theirs is a team comprising youth and experience. Annan, professional as ever, has garnered data from the Olympic qualifiers and the Nations Cup which produced a qualifier for the Pro League in the form of India.

India, however, are fighting the demons of not qualifying for the Olympics last month and Head Coach Janneke Schopman of the Netherlands knows she has an uphill task ahead.

The hosts are also trying to come to terms with a 0-4 defeat to China in the Asian Games semi-finals – a reverse that forced them to participate in the tricky qualifiers where they came a cropper, losing to Japan 0-1 in a battle for the third and last Olympic spot from the tournament.

Mumtaz Khan, who sparkled in the U-21 squad, was finally given her full international cap along with 16-year-old forward Sunelita Toppo and Salima Tete, the engine room of the side, picked up her 100th cap.

Along with Vandana, drag-flicker and defender Gurjit Kaur returned to the squad after the Olympic qualifiers, but sent the only PC her team earned high into the first-runner-out.

After the Asian Games debacle, India subsequently beat China 2-1 in the Asian Champions Trophy in Ranchi but that success only brought bragging rights. The teams’ last FIH Pro League meeting was in Muscat, Oman, early in 2022 where India prevailed 7-1 and 2-1, but that was before Annan took charge.

Vandana’s celebrations after scoring suggested pent-up emotions of missing out on India’s ill-fated Olympic qualifying campaign. A cheekbone fracture at the Eleventh Hour deprived the ace forward of action in the campaign – a misfortune that one wagers was telling.

The star of India’s fourth-place campaign at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Vandana scored with a diving left-hand stick connection to Lalremsiami’s searching cross into the circle.

The goal came against the run of play after China made the early running during which they forced two penalty corners out of 11 that they won in the match.

For all that, India could have punished Annan’s team had Sharmila Devi done better on the dot of halftime – a miss that denied India a two-goal cushion.

China took control in the third quarter even as India threatened sporadically. Their ascendancy was bound to tell. Surely enough, good individual skill by Bingfeng set up Dan who lunged forward to pop the ball over captain, veteran, and goalkeeper Savita Punia, to make it 1-1.

Then, Gurjit’s essay off India’s only PC came to naught on the dot of three-quarter time and the teams went into the final session with the prospect of a shootout and a bonus point looming.

China, however, took a firm grip on the proceedings as the clock ticked away, forced a spate of penalty corners, and scored when Bingfeng produced the coup de grace.

It very nearly was 3-1 off China’s last penalty corner but Savita exemplified her prowess by sending the ball over the bar.

China ran the clock down with a minimum of fuss and will relish three points ahead of their match against Australia on Sunday at 17.30 IST.

India and The Netherlands will follow them onto the pitch at 19.30 IST, the hosts facing a daunting encounter after the all-conquering Dutch routed the USA 7-0 in a match played earlier on Saturday.