The Indian women’s hockey team recorded its third successive win in the Asia Cup, beating Malaysia 2-0 in the final pool game in Kakamigahara in Japan on Tuesday.
India march into the quarter-finals as table-toppers with nine points. The goals, which came late in the game, were scored by Vandana Katariya (54th minute) and Gurjit Kaur (55th).
The first quarter saw both teams play cautiously with the Malaysian defence seeing out the Indian attacks.
After the first quarter ended in a stalemate, Malaysia put India on the back foot when they won the first penalty corner of the match in the initial minutes of the second quarter. However, an alert Rajani Etimarpu made a brilliant save.
The next few minutes saw both teams trade penalty corners. Malaysia were awarded two of them but nothing came off it. There was barely any goalmouth action in the third quarter too. Malaysia, though, squandered yet another penalty corner opportunity.
With the match crawling towards a goalless draw, Katariya broke the deadlock with a sensational field goal six minutes from time.
A minute later, drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur converted a penalty corner. Malaysia made desperate attempts in the dying minutes of the match but the staunch Indian defence held firm.
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