India books its berth in the FIH World Cup for Junior Women in Santiago

After defeating the hosts Japan by a solitary second half goal, India has assured itself a place in the FIH Hockey World Cup for Junior Women to be played in Santiago later this year. Top three teams from the ongoing AHF Junior Women Asia Cup tournament will qualify for the Santiago tournament. India now plays the winner of the China-Korea match in the final.

India has already qualified for the FIH World Cup Hockey for Junior Men by winning the Asia Cup title at Salalah in Oman early this month.

Japan started this tournament very well scoring the biggest win – 23-0 against Hong Kong China. Its winning streak was, however, brought to stop by the pool leader, China. Japan lost 0-1, in the pool game to finish at second spot in the group.

Japan is the only team that scored more than 50 goals in pool games. It scored 52 and conceded one.

In the first semi-final, the home team started well. Playing aggressively, it had Indian defence on its toes with some good moves. Speed and energy were the keywords in the repeated arrays of Japanese forwards into the Indian half.

It was only in the second half that Indian girls settled down and  worked out good moves. India was unlucky to muff a penalty stroke that came its way in the second half. Unperturbed by the missed opportunity, Indian girls continued to maintain pressure in the fourth and final quarter. The offensive tactics paid dividends as in the 47^th minute, Annu, who had pushed wide of the target from the penalty stroke earlier in the third quarter, made amends for her lapse and latched on to score the only goal of the game in the 47^th minute. It was a fine opportunist goal that caught the Japanese defence split.

After taking the lead, India did not give up and continued to work out good moves but wide off the target finish prevented it from scoring any further in the match.

Annu was declared player of the match.

Prabhjot Singh