India enters Semifinals of 7th Women’s Junior Asia Cup

Changzhou (China), 10 September 2015: Captain Rani Rampal’s hat trick helped the Indian Junior Women Team to convincingly defeat Malaysia 9-1 in their last league game of the 7th Women’s Junior Asia Cup. With this win India has qualified for the semi-final of the tournament.

Indian eves wasted no time in attacking the opponent’s half and penetrated the Malaysian circle in the early minutes of the game. Preeti Dubey rushed into the Malaysian defence and played a cross ball towards Rani Rampal, who scored the first goal for India in the 8th minute. 15th minute and it was Jaspreet Kaur who converted a penalty corner opportunity to register India’s 2nd goal. With 6 minutes left to the first half, India took a 3-0 lead with the help of Preeti Dubey’s brilliant conversion. Just before the end of first half Malaysia opened its account as Mohd. Saiuti Norfaiezah sneaked through the Indian defence on a counter attacking move to earn the first goal for her team and the session ended 3-1 in favor of India.

Indian girls came all guns blazing in the second half looking all fired to add further goals to their score. They attacked relentlessly to score 4 goals in the 37th, 39th, 41st and 42nd minute, taking the score to 7-1 and leaving the opponents frustrated. Hungry for more, 51st minute saw Poonam Balra deflecting a running ball from wide angle past through goal keeper to add the 8th goal for her team. India was witnessed persistently raiding the Malaysian circle and Jaspreet Kaur scored her second goal of the match through another penalty corner in the 60th minute of the game. With this the game finished 9-1 in favour for India.

India will now gear up for their semi-final clash slated for 12th September 2015 against Japan.

The 7th Women’s Junior Asia cup 2015 is a qualification tournament for the FIH Junior World Cup (Women) 2016.