Rajgir. Defending champions India continued their winning streak and qualified for the semi-finals by defeating Japan 3-0 in their final league match of the Women’s Asian Champions Trophy (ACT) hockey tournament here on Sunday. The tournament’s top scorer Deepika (47th and 48th minutes), who was in excellent form, scored two goals in the last quarter while vice-captain Navneet Kaur opened India’s account with a goal in the 37th minute.
With this win, India is on top of the table with 15 points from five wins in five matches, while Olympic silver medalist China (12 points) is in second place. India will face fourth-placed Japan in the semi-finals on Tuesday, while China will face third-placed Malaysia in the second match of the last-four.
Deepika, the top goal scorer of the tournament, has so far scored a total of 10 goals including four field goals, five goals from penalty corner and one goal from penalty strokes. The Indians got consecutive penalty corners in the eighth minute but the players could not capitalize on them. India got another penalty corner in the 13th minute but again missed the chance.
The host team continued its dominance and won its fourth penalty corner in the 25th minute. But once again Japan’s goalkeeper Yu Kudo took advantage of the opportunity and made three brilliant saves. A minute after the change of ends, Kudo again helped Japan by stopping Deepika’s attempt. India finally took the lead in the 37th minute through a brilliant reverse hit from Navneet.
India won three consecutive penalty corners in the 47th minute and star dragflicker Deepika opened her account with a powerful dragflick. A minute later, the Indians created another chance on which Deepika scored the goal with a powerful flick and in the end the team won the match.
Credit must also be given to the Indian defence, in which Udita and Sushila Chanu led brilliantly and did not allow the Japanese players to get a single shot on the Indian goal. Captain Salima Tete, Neha and Shimla Devi also performed brilliantly in the midfield. He created many chances for the front line with his excellent ‘dribbling’ skills. In other matches of the day, Malaysia defeated Thailand 2-0 while China defeated South Korea by the same margin.