India booked a place in the semi-finals of the FIH Women’s Series Finals with a 11-0 hammering of Fiji in Hiroshima on Tuesday.
It took India just four minutes to open the scoring against Fiji, ranked 44th in the FIH women’s rankings, as Lalremsiami danced her way through the defence to fire past the hapless goalkeeper.
The Rani Rampal-led side had chances to increase their tally but squandered two penalty corners in the opening exchanges. However, in the 10th minute Rani sent a powerful shot into the back of the net to make the most of their third PC and double the lead.
The second goal opened the floodgates as India fired three goals in quick succession to take a 5-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. Monika, Vandana, and Gurjit Kaur got on the scoresheet for India.
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The pool leaders picked up from where they had left in the first half and fired another three quick goals to give them an 8-0 lead. Gurjit completed her hat-trick for India.
In the second half, Fiji conceded again after three minutes as Monika added her second of the day to make it 9-0.
India lifted their foot off the pedal which gave Fiji a chance to show some much-needed resilience in the remainder of the second half.
It, however, didn’t stop India from scoring twice in the dying minutes to make it a final score of 11-0 in their favour.
It was however great to see the Fiji side join Indians in the celebrations after that match. It was a great piece of sportsmanship displayed by India’s opponents
This was India’s third win in as many games in the pool stage having beaten Uruguay [4-1] and Poland [5-0] previously.
India will now face one of Uruguay, Japan, and Russia in the semi-finals on June 22.
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