New Delhi, 11 April 2015: The opening day of the Hawke’s Bay Cup between India and China was an exciting opening game to the tournament. Both the teams in their bid to not allow easy goals to each other ensured that their defence was strong, restricting the forwards to capitalise on the opportunities. With the scorecard yet to be opened real action was witnessed in the third quarter when India finally opened their account but went down losing the match 1-2.

Both the teams started with great speed and attacked trying to create the initial pressure but the defenders proved to be more into business restricting and not allowing the easy goals. This resulted in a dry run in the first two quarters as the first half score stood at 0-0.

Immediately into the second half India finally broke the shackles and scored the first goal of the Hawkes’ Bay Cup as Anuradha Thokochom ensured she slammed the ball past the goalkeeper stunning the opponents. With this goal India took the lead in the game 1-0. The lead was short lived as China bounced back and equalised in the 34thminute when China attacking the D of India earned a penalty corner which was capitalised by Mengyu Wang. India counter attacked immediately looking at the lead again. But China struck again in the 38th minute as Qian Yu scored through a field goal. The rest of the session saw India attacking and trying to look for the equaliser but failed to do so.

India attacked in the last quarter maintaining a good ball possession but was unable to score the equaliser goal resulting in China winning the match by 2-1.

The Hawke’s Bay will be played from 11 April – 19 April 2015 and eight teams are battling it out for the title. India will play their next match against USA at 7.00 AM IST on 12 April 2015. The matches will be LIVE Streamed on www.hockeyfestival.nz.