Indian eves beat England, finish third

Breda (The Netherlands), July 26

The Indian women’s hockey team finished third at the U-21 Volvo Invitational tournament, following a penalty shootout win against England here today.

The two teams finished tied 1-1 after the regulation time. India’s goalkeeper Inderpreet Kaur emerged the star of the match as she thwarted all the attempts by the English players in the shootout, helping India clinch the closely-fought match and the third position.

Having learnt their lessons from their previous pool match against England, the Indian women launched surprise attacks, while maintaining a closely-knit defence line. The Indians didn’t repeat their previous mistakes in defence; they had every player marked.

India managed to earn a penalty corner in the first few minutes, but could not convert. However, with the continuous attacks, India’s forward Punam Barla sneaked in and scored the first goal in the 31st minute.

With the early lead, they played with more confidence and kept on attacking till the end of the first half.

The second half saw more aggression from the Indian side. England, on the other hand, came with some better strategies and looked for opportunities to level the score.

After a few attempts, England earned three back-to-back penalty corners but all were thwarted by India’s defence, led by the goalkeeper.

The match turned into a neck-to-neck battle as players from both the sides pushed themselves hard to score goals.

In the 68th minute, England managed to earn a penalty corner and skipper Hannah Martin converted it to get the equaliser. — PTI