Kakamilagahara (Japan): The Indian women's hockey team made a great start to its campaign in the Asian Games. In the first match of Pool B on Sunday, India defeated Uzbekistan 19-0. In this match, Deepika alone made the Indian victory one-sided by scoring eight goals.
India created pressure from the beginning
The Indian team showed aggressive attitude from the very beginning of the match. Uzbekistan's defense remained under constant pressure in the face of Indian attacks and India scored eight goals in the first half.
Lalremsiami opened India's account with a field goal from close range in the seventh minute. One minute later, Deepika scored a goal and increased the lead to 2-0. In the 11th minute, Ishika scored a brilliant goal from the left side of the circle on a pass from Sunelita Toppo. In the very next minute Baljeet Kaur made the score 4-0.
In the 18th minute, Neha further strengthened India's lead by scoring a field goal. After this, Deepika converted the opportunity from the penalty corner into a goal through dragflick and scored her second goal and made the score 6-0.
India lead 8-0 in the first half
Navneet Kaur scored a field goal in the 23rd minute. After this, Deepika converted another penalty corner into a goal in the 25th minute. In this way India ended the first half with a lead of 8-0.
Even in the second half, Indian players did not give any chance to Uzbekistan. India scored 11 more goals in the last two quarters and won the match by a huge margin of 19-0.
Deepika scored eight goals alone
Deepika scored goals in the 8th, 22nd, 25th, 33rd, 36th, 38th, 41st and 54th minutes. Apart from them, Lalremsiami (7th), Ishika (11th, 42nd, 54th), Baljeet Kaur (12th), Neha (18th), Navneet Kaur (23rd, 45th), Lathantluangi (43rd, 51st) and Sakshi Rana (43rd) scored for India.
Savita Poonia made a special record
Indian team's experienced goalkeeper Savita Punia played her 320th international match in this match. With this, she jointly with Vandana Kataria became the Indian woman player to play the most number of international matches.
However, Savita did not need to intervene much during the match, as the Uzbekistan team struggled to maintain possession of the ball in the face of Indian pressure.
Now there will be competition with Indonesia
India, the second highest ranked team in the Asian Games, will now face Indonesia in their next match on Monday.
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