India women beat higher-ranked China 4-1 in hockey Asia Cup

Navjot Kaur in action (Image: Hockey India)

Kakamigahara: Indian eves dished out an all-round performance to stun China 4-1 and register their second consecutive victory at the women’s Asia Cup hockey tournament, here on Monday.

Goals from Gurjit Kaur (19th minute), Navjot Kaur (32nd), Neha Goyal (49th) and skipper Rani Rampal (58th) enabled the Indians to keep their winning momentum in Pool A at Kakamigahara Kawasaki Stadium.

India had earlier defeated Singapore 10-0 in their tournament opener.

The Indians were quick to get off the blocks as they won a penalty corner in the first 15 minutes of the match to put China on the back foot. The first quarter ended in a stalemate after India wasted the chance.

But four minutes into the second quarter, dragflick specialist Gurjit Kaur converted a splendid goal to give India a 1-0 lead.

Two minutes after the change of ends, India doubled their lead through Navjot Kaur’s field strike. But a defensive error in the circle saw India concede a penalty corner in the 38th minute and the Chinese were quick to capitalise on the opportunity and pulled one goal back through Qiuxia Cui’s successful conversion.

Down by a goal, China pushed hard in search of the equaliser in the final quarter but failed to break the resolute Indian defence.

The Indians made life more difficult for their opponents when Neha Goyal found the back of the Chinese net with a variation from a set piece to make the scoreline 3-1.

In the last 10 minutes of the match, both the teams traded penalty corners. While India won two, China secured one but both the sides failed to utilise the chances.

The action, however, didn’t end there as skipper Rani scored a sensational field goal in the 58th minute to secure a commanding 4-1 win for India.

India will next play Malaysia in their last pool match on Tuesday.