The Tribune: Hockey girls lose to Japan in semifinals

Changzhou (China), Sept 12

India missed out on a chance to enter the final after losing the shoot-out battle against Japan in a closely fought semifinal of the 7th Women’s Junior Asia Cup.

India relinquished their lead twice in the game as the regulation time ended at 2-2. In the penalty shoot-out, Japan won 3-2 to set up the title clash with China. India will play Korea in the third-place match tomorrow.

India earned their first penalty corner in the fourth minute. Deep Grace Ekka’s cracking strike gave India the lead. Japan took some time to recover and counter-attacked to get their first penalty corner but Indian goalkeeper Inderpreet Kaur stood firm. Japan got another penalty corner in the 18th minute and this time captain Yukari Mano converted.

Midfielder Renuka Yadav put India ahead in the 25th minute. India managed to keep the lead till the 57th minute when Ayane Hirahara found the equaliser.

In the shoot-out, Navjot Kaur and Preeti Dubey successfully converted the opportunities while Navneet Kaur, Ekka and skipper Rani Rampal failed to score.

This edition of the event is a qualification tournament for next year’s FIH Junior World Cup (Women). — PTI