Asian Games: India women's hockey team registers 17th victory over Malaysia

HANGHZOU: Indian Women's Hockey Team registered their second consecutive victory at the 19th Asian Games, defeating Malaysia 6-0 in Pool A match, here on Friday.

Monika (7’), Deep Grace Ekka (8’), Navneet Kaur (11’), Vaishnavi Vitthal Phalke (15’), Sangita Kumari (24’), and Lalremsiami (50’) scored a goal each for India.

The match began with Malaysia focusing on keeping possession, while India were on the attack from the get-go, and that helped them win a penalty corner in the opening minute of the game but couldn’t capitalise on it.

However, the Indian team continued to put pressure on Malaysia and it paid off when they scored a brilliant team goal through Monika (7’), who converted a brilliant pass from Udita in the center.

India then doubled their lead a minute later as Vice Captain Deep Grace Ekka (8’) converted a penalty corner with a well-directed shot following which Navneet Kaur (11’) scored a superb field goal to make it 3-0 for her side.

Also, a superb deflection from Vaishnavi Vitthal Phalke (15’) who ran to the far post to deflect in Neha's hit from a penalty corner helped India take a healthy 4-0 lead in the opening quarter.

India maintained their dominance in the second quarter as well by creating numerous chances and keeping Malaysian defence on their toes, courtesy of which they extended their lead as Sangita Kumari (24’) calmly received a pass from Neha and fired it into the net via reverse shot.

Notably, the Indian team kept on attacking in their bid to increase the lead but the second quarter didn’t see any more goals as India went into the half-time break with a solid 5-0 lead.

The third quarter witnessed Malaysia keep maximum possession and show attacking intent, but India switched to counter-attacking to keep pressure on their opponents and the strategy paid dividends as Malaysia were not able to find the back of the net, and the penultimate quarter ended goalless with India keeping their 5-0 lead intact.

The fourth and final quarter of the game saw India continue their dominance and Lalremsiami (50’) netted the only goal of the quarter through a reverse shot as the Indian team comfortably won the match 6-0.

Interestingly, with the win, the Indian Women’s Hockey Team bettered their head-to-head record against Malaysia as out of the 18 matches played between the two sides, India emerged victorious in 17, while only one match ended in a draw.

Indian Women's Hockey team will next face Korea on Sunday.