Khelo India Women's Hockey League: Deepika shines in India juniors win

A hat-trick from Deepika helped the Indian junior women's team beat the Sports Authority of India B 6-0 in the inaugural Khelo India U-21 Women’s Hockey League on Wednesday.

Although the Indian junior women's hockey team scored half-a-dozen goals, the win by far wasn't as easy as the Indian team were made to toil at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium.

It was in the final quarter of the match that Deepika did the star turn for the Indian junior hockey team. Overall, she scored four goals to carve the result in stone.

In other matches, Anjali Panwar did a little better than Deepika on the day as she went on to score five goals for Khalsa Hockey Academy against Mumbai Schools Sports Association in a Group A match. Anjali Panwar's heroics helped Khalsa Hockey Academy thump Mumbai Schools Sports Association 15-0.

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Odisha Naval Tata High-Performance Center beat Raja Karan Hockey Academy 1-0 through a Priya Toppo penalty corner in the 26th minute.

A second-half hat-trick by Poonam Mundu was the highlight of a 7-1 victory by Sports Authority of India A over Odisha Sports Hostel in a Group B match.

Indian junior hockey team hogs the limelight

The greater attention was understandably on the Indian women's junior hockey team, who have been drafted into this tournament as a part of their preparations for the postponed FIH Junior Women’s World Cup in South Africa.

The Indian team were off to a slow start against SAI B, intent on crowding out the attackers and defending well.

It was 18-year-old Hisar girl Deepika who broke the deadlock when she scored off a penalty corner in the 12th minute. Deepika slotted home two minutes into the second quarter and completed her hat-trick with a penalty corner conversion early in the third quarter.

As hard as SAI B tried to keep the scoreline down, the Indian women's hockey team doubled their tally in the final quarter through Mumtaz Khan and Beauty Dung Dung. The two penalty corner goals were sandwiched by a fine field goal by Deepika.

Erik Wonink, coach of the Indian women's junior hockey team, said they were delighted at the opportunity to play competitive matches. Wonink spoke high of the team's performance and singled out the cohesion the Indian team displayed while complimenting SAI B for putting up a stiff challenge.

“While Deepika scored four goals, I liked how others were in positions to score or create penalty corners,” he said.

Simranjeet Kaur joined Anjali Panwar as the two Khalsa Hockey Academy players who often found the target, her four goals ensuring that the pair accounted for nine of the 15 goals by the team. Mumbai Schools Sports Association will draw consolation from stopping the Amritsar squad from scoring in the third quarter after conceding 13 in the first half.

The 14-team Khelo India U-21 Women’s Hockey League was declared open by various dignitaries of the governement and sports associations. Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Singh Thakur unveiled the trophies and declared the League open.