Outstanding defence: Plucky Punia thwarts 9 bids at goal

Gaurav Kanthwal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 2

The yellow shirts attacked in waves, but the blues stood firm — the Indian women’s hockey team, thus, secured its most famous victory ever, beating world no. 2 Australia 1-0 in the quarterfinals at Tokyo.

Both men’s and women’s teams from India have qualified for the Olympic semifinals for the first time ever. Victory left the Indian women ecstatic, the Australians broken-hearted and the Indian coach Sjoerd Marijne tearful.

Also read: Editorial: Chak de India!

At the final hooter, the players fell to their knees, the substitutes rushed to the centre and they screamed and hugged each other. This was a dream come true — India had failed to win a single match at Rio 2016 and had to fight hard to qualify for Tokyo 2020. India’s best show at the Olympics was in Moscow 1980, where they finished fourth among six teams. Australia got seven penalty corners but failed to score while India scored a goal off their one and only penalty corner. Gurjit Kaur, who had not been impressive in the group stage, scored in the 22nd minute, drag-flicking the ball in with a small deflection from an Australian stick. Thereafter, it was down to brave defending and brave counterattacks which caught the Australians off guard.

Savita Punia, who began the match well by denying the Australians success right from the start, rose to the occasion. As the clock ticked, the Australians seemed to panic in the face of India’s brave defending. Gurjit’s father, Satnam Singh, missed the match as he was performing ‘sewa’ at Anandpur Sahib. “It was getting late for langar and there were lots of devotees to attend to,” he told The Tribune. “My family called me up to inform Gurjit had scored in India’s win. Guru Maharaj di kirpa hai.”

Punia’s father Mahinder Singh watched the match and was not surprised by his daughter’s performance. “Coming out of a match against Australia without conceding a goal is fantastic. I believe there is more to come in the next match,’’ he added optimistically.