Women’s Hockey Asia Cup 2013: China beat India 1-0 to top the group

India’s national women’s hockey team – File Photo

After a blistering performance against Hong Kong in their inaugural match, India was unable to extend their winning streak against the tough competitors China in their second match of the group stage in the ongoing Women’s Hockey Asia Cup 2013.

The Chinese women defeated Indian side by 1-0. Wang Meng Yu cashed the chance of penalty corner for China in the 50th minute of the game as she was successful in converting it into the only goal for her team. No other goal was scored throughout the match.

Indian side performed reasonably well in the first half of the game and was successful in restricting the score to 0-0. Indian defenders Deepika, Joydeep Kaur and Kirandeep Kaur restricted the Chinese strikers well from penetrating the Indian half on the field, but on the other side, the Chinese defence was too strong for the Indian strikers like Rani, Vandana Katariya and Poonam Rani to score even a single goal. Star Indian strikers, Rani and Vandana Katariya, looked helpless in front of the extreme Chinese defence.While in the second half of this tight match, China got a golden opportunity of penalty corner in the 50th minute of the game. The agile Chinese player Wang Meng Yu performed as per the expectations of the Chinese captain Ren Ye and converted the chance of this 50th minute penalty corner of the game into the winning goal for her team.

In their last match of the group stage, India will be up against the hosts Malaysia, which now becomes a must win game for the Indian side to qualify for the knock-out stage of this tournament. This match will take place on Tuesday, 24th September, 2014 in the Hoki Nasional Stadium, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

On the other side, the Chinese team will be relaxed after defeating India and they will be very comfortable for their last group stage match against the underdogs Hong Kong on Tuesday 24th September, 2014.