Donghae City: Indian women's hockey team on Thursday entered the final of Asian Champions Trophy by defeating Malaysia 3-2 at the Sunrisers Stadium. This was India's third win in a row, after defeating Japan (4-1) and China (3-1) in its first two pool matches. India will take on hosts South Korea in its final poll match on Saturday before Sunday's final.
India's Gurjit Kaur (17'), Vandana Kataria (33') and Lalremsiami (40') scored goal for India, while Nuraini Rashid (36') and Hanis Onn (48') scored for Malaysia. India maintained its pace til the end and in last clinched the match.
In the first quarter both the teams got penalty corners, and drag-flicker Gurjit scored the first goal and took the team to 1-0. Malaysia's attempt to score off a penalty corner, too, was thwarted by the Indian defenders.
However, India, who had beaten Malaysia 6-0 in a warm-up match ahead of the tournament, made its first breakthrough when penalty corner specialist Gurjit improvised on a Lilima Minz injection to strike the ball past the Malaysian goalkeeper. She kept her flick low to find the bottom-right corner of the goal for India's first goal in the 17th minute.
Senior women's team won the first match 4-1 against Japan and 3-1 against China in the fifth Asian Champions Trophy. The Indian team won the third pool match against Malaysia at the Sunrisers Stadium with a hat-trick of victory and with the highest nine points, qualified for the finals while remaining in the table.
India's Gurjit Kaur (17'), Vandana Kataria (33') and Lalremsiami (40') scored goal for India, while Nuraini Rashid (36') and Hanis Onn (48') scored for Malaysia. India managed to maintain its flow til the end and in last clinched the match.
"We could have made better use of our chances to score today. Though we are happy with the win, we are not very happy about how we played. We will go back to the team hotel and discuss about the mistakes we made and how to improve ahead of the next match against Korea," skipper Sunita Lakra said after the match.(UNI)