Asian Games hockey, as it happened: India hammer Kazakhstan 21-0 to top Pool B

HOOTER! Phew. Finally the barrage of goal stops. Every minute India came close to scoring a goal. Sometimes, they scored twice in a minute. Four of them scoring a hat-trick. Maybe its five. It doesn’t matter. The goals kept coming. If not for the scoreboard, they would have most likely forgotten how many they scored and who was scoring them. And, to think that captain Rani Rampal wasn’t on the field for most of the match shows the difference between the two sides. For the Kazakhs, this is a match they’d like to erase from their memories soon.

Final quarter, India 21-0 Kazakhstan (1 minutes to go): Absolutely no respite for the Kazakh girls. They’d be counting down for the match, this misery, to end.

Final quarter, India 21-0 Kazakhstan (3 minutes to go): PC for India. Reena Khokhar with the push. Deep Grace Ekka misses the ball.

Final quarter, India 21-0 Kazakhstan (4 minutes to go): Yet another PC for India. Relief for Indonesia. No more goals scored, thankfully.

Final quarter, India 21-0 Kazakhstan (5 minutes to go): The Kazakhs seem to have given up. Indians are scoring goals with less than one-minute intervals. Monika scores India’s 21st.

Final quarter, India 20-0 Kazakhstan (7 minutes to go): Navjot becomes the fourth player of the night to complete a hat-trick. She nets India’s 20th goal.

Final quarter, India 19-0 Kazakhstan (9 minutes to go): Vandana positions herself superbly in front of the goal mouth to receive a long ball and complete her hat-trick.

Final quarter, India 18-0 Kazakhstan (9 minutes to go): GOAL! Gurjit scores of another Penalty Corner. She unleashes a strike to the top right corner. Spectacular goal.

Final quarter, India 17-0 Kazakhstan (9 minutes to go): Udita and Navjot play a one-two from the right flank. Udita gets the ball but doesn’t find the right angle to strike. The attempt hits the side netting.

Final quarter, India 17-0 Kazakhstan (12 minutes to go): Good trapping by Navneet Kaur helps her score India’s 17th goal. This is her third goal of the night. She’s the third Indian to score a hat-trick tonight.

Final quarter, India 16-0 Kazakhstan (13 minutes to go): India pass among themselves, trying to steal a penalty corner by hitting the ball on the opposition’s legs. The Kazakhs have done well not to concede in the first three minutes of the final quarter.

Third quarter, India 16-0 Kazakhstan (2 minutes to go): GOALS! Gurjit Kaur scored off a superb penalty corner to make it 15-0 before Lilima Minz ran in from the midfield to score the 16th for India. The Indians have a great chance to make it 20-0.

Third quarter, India 14-0 Kazakhstan (2 minutes to go): Another PC. No variation this time. Deep Grace Ekka with a mighty hit to the right low corner gets India their 14th goal.

Third quarter, India 13-0 Kazakhstan (3 minutes to go): Another penalty corner, India try another variation. Instead of the conventional drag flick. The one who took the PC, pushes the ball to her left. Vandana, then, passed the ball to Lalremsiami, who quite couldn’t get the ball.

Third quarter, India 13-0 Kazakhstan (3 minutes to go): A breather now for Kazakhstan. No goals for four minutes. They’d hope it lasts long. Oh, wait. Penalty Corner.

Lilima with the injection. No drag-flick. Vandana hits it to her left. And, India get another PC.

Third quarter, India 13-0 Kazakhstan (7 minutes to go): GOALS! The 12th one was a smooth deflection by Vandana of a long ball by Lilima Minz. The 13th, Lilima scored after a scramble at the goalmouth.

Third quarter, India 11-0 Kazakhstan (9 minutes to go): PENALTY STROKE! Deep Grace’s penalty corner hits the leg of a Kazakh defender. Gurjit has no problem converting the penalty stroke.

Third quarter, India 10-0 Kazakhstan (12 minutes to go): GOAL! Well-constructed goal by India. Vandana Katariya passes to Udita, who from the left flank unleashes a strike into the net. The Indians are running away with the match.

Second quarter, India 9-0 Kazakhstan (1 minutes to go): GOAL! Navjot Kaur and Lalremsiami play a superb passing game that culminates in India’s ninth goal of the night. Also, it’s a hat-trick for the young Lalremsiami. And that brings us to the end of the second quarter.

Second quarter, India 8-0 Kazakhstan (1 minutes to go): GOAL! Vandana, after quite a while, resmues the scoring for India. She scores the eighth one of the night by drawing the goalie, squaring her up and reverse-hitting the ball from a narrow angle from the left..

Second quarter, India 7-0 Kazakhstan (2 minutes to go): Penalty Corner. India’s seventh. Deep Grace makes the injection. Gurjit Kaur hits the ball to the centre. The Kazakh goalie Bakhavaddin has no problem parrying it away.

Second quarter, India 7-0 Kazakhstan (3 minutes to go): The intensity of the Indian attack have been amiss in the last 10 minutes or so. Kazakhstan have been making forays into the Indian half more often than they did in the previous quarter.

Second quarter, India 7-0 Kazakhstan (6 minutes to go): The goal barrage seems to have stopped. India make a lot of passes. But there haven’t been a lot of shots on goal. The pace of the Indian attack seems to have dropped too.

Second quarter, India 7-0 Kazakhstan (8 minutes to go): All the Kazakh players inside their circle. India are looking to score their eighth. More passes without much success for India.

Second quarter, India 7-0 Kazakhstan (11 minutes to go): GOAL! India’s six Penalty Corner! Gurjit hits. Bakhavaddin deflects off her pads. Once again, India gets hold of the rebound and they score again. Lalremsiami is all smiles after tapping in her second goal.

Second quarter, India 6-0 Kazakhstan (13 minutes to go): GOAL! The lack of experience of Kazakhstan shows. Goalkeeper Guzal Bakhavaddin did well to keep out an incoming ball. But there are no defenders to block the rebound tapped in by Navjot Kaur.

First quarter, India 5-0 Kazakhstan (1 minutes to go): Penalty Corner! India’s fifth. Gurjit Kaur hits the ball straight to the pads of the Kazakh goalkeeper Guzal Bakhavaddin. And, that brings us to the end of the first quarter.

First quarter, India 5-0 Kazakhstan (5 minutes to go): GOAL! Another superb run by Vandana Katariya. Gives the ball to Navneet at the goalmouth who taps in the fifth goal for India. The Kazakhs look disoriented now.

First quarter, India 4-0 Kazakhstan (9 minutes to go): GOALS! Lalremsiami, Neha Goyal and Navneet Kaur score goals back to back to make it 4-0 for India. All three are field goals.

GOAL! And, India convert their third PC. Gurjit comes forward and hits the ball to the bottom left corner and the Kazakh goalie has no chance to save the ball.

First quarter, India 0-0 Kazakhstan (9 minutes to go): Second PC for India. Reena Khokhar with the inject. Gurjit strikes. The goalie deflects the ball to the body of her teammate. Another PC.

First quarter, India 0-0 Kazakhstan (11 minutes to go): Like vultures circling a hapless prey, the Indian attackers are constantly threatening Kazakhstan in their circle. But the Kazakhs, so far, have done well to deny India.

First quarter, India 0-0 Kazakhstan (12 minutes to go): First PC for India within three minutes of the start.

First quarter, India 0-0 Kazakhstan (13 minutes to go): Early attempt at a goal by India. The Indian women, wearing whites, make a high press. Good shot by Lilima Minz. But the Kazakh women, playing for the third time in Asian Games, clear the ball away.

STARTING XI:-

6:15 pm Hello and welcome to the live coverage of India versus Kazkhstan. The favourites versus the underdogs. Coach Sjoerd Marijne, once again, would want his team to win and win big, like they did against Indonesia. Kazakhstan is ranked 34th in the world and would need something special to halt the Indians. Despite the 8-0 win against Indonesia, there were a few opportunities that the Indians missed. So, against the Kazakhs, they’d want to be ruthless and score as much as they can.