7th Junior Asia Cup: Women's hockey team storms into the semi-final

The young Indian side hammered the Malaysians 9-1 (Image credits: Hockey India)

The junior Indian women’s hockey team continued their fine run of form with an emphatic 9-1 victory over the Malaysians in their last group stage match at the Junior Asia Cup in Changzhou. This victory ensured the Indians of a semi-final berth at the 2016 Junior World Cup qualification tournament.

The young Indian team started the match on the front foot and kept on the pressure to score important early goals. The 21-year old skipper Rani Rampal opened the scoring in the 8th minute with a clinical finish across the Malaysian custodian after Preeti Dubey presented her with a cutback cross across the goal.

The blues doubled their lead through a penalty corner conversion by Jaspreet Kaur in the 15th minute while Preeti Dubey scored a wonderful solo goal to make the scoreline read 3-0 in the Blues favor.

The Malaysians pulled a goal back just before the half-time through Mohd Saiuti Norfaiezah’s field goal. At half-time, the Indian side led 3-1.

The Blues started the second half on the same note as they ended the 1st half, penetrating the Malaysian circle on every attack. The Malaysians fought back hard to slow down the rate at which the Indian team was attacking but found themselves short as the young Indian team scored 4 goals in quick succession.

Rani Rampal started the second half with a goal in 37th minute to make it 4-1. Deep Grace Ekka and Navneet Kaur made the scoreline 6-1 in the next two minutes before Rani completed her hat trick with a good finesse shot to make it 7-1 in the Blues favor and take the match out of Malaysia’s grasp.

The Indian team continued to put pressure on the Malaysian defence line and increased the gap in the 51st minute through Poonam Balra as she deflected in a running ball from a wide angle past Malaysian goalkeeper. Jaspreet scored her second goal of the match through another penalty corner conversion in the final minute of the game to round off the tally and conclude the match 9-1 in the Blues side.

A total of 41 goals were scored in the 4 matches played across 2 groups in one day.

Results - Day 6 (10 September 2015)

Thailand - Japan 0-12 (0-7)Goals: Yukari Mano (3), Hazuki Nagai (2), Kanon Mori (2), Maho Segawa, Ayane Hirahara, Marina Yagi, Natsuha Matsumoto, Mami Karino

Rep. of Korea - Chinese Taipei 12-0 (3-0)Goals: Baek Eeseul (3), Kim Minyeong (2), Lee Yurim (2), Cho Hye Jin (2), Kim Minji, Lee Minji, Park Mirim

Malaysia - India 1-9 (1-3)Goals Malaysia: Norfaiezah Mohd SaiutiGoals India: Rani (3), Jaspreet Kaur (2), Preeti Dubey, Deep Grace Ekka, Navneet Kaur, Punam Barla

China - Singapore 7-0 (4-0)Goals: Ou Zixia (2), Gu Bingfeng (2), Zhong Mengling, Shan Zhuo, Zhong Jiaqi

Another dominating performance by our girls takes India to the semis of the 7th Women's Jr. Asia Cup!#IndiaKaGame pic.twitter.com/PCKs68lD88

— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) September 10, 2015