Changzhou, China | September| Saturday | 05, 2015 :: Commencing the tournament on a winning note, upbeat Indian Junior eves defeated the girls of DPR Korea by 13-0 and secured their first win in the ongoing 7th Women’s Junior Asia Cup today.
The two teams began the first half with great pace and attacking skills trying to create the initial pressure but the Indian team proved to be more into business as they restricted the opponents and did not allow them to score. Without wasting much time, India’s Preeti Dubey drew first blood and slammed the ball past the goalkeeper in the 11th minute to open the score card by 1-0. While DPR Korea was constantly looking to pierce the defence of the opponents, India’s Jaspreet Kaur surged ahead and successfully converted a penalty corner in the 20th minute to take the lead to 2-0. India kept on its attacking spree and struck the third goal through the field efforts of Navneet Kaur in the 24th minute. Contributing the fourth goal in favour of India, Captain Rani rushed forward and notched a field goal in the 28th minute to advance the scores to 4-0 in favour of India. While, India continued to produce a series of goals on regular intervals, DPR Korea was not able to find any gaps and failed to convert the scoring opportunities. Indian girls did not stop here as Lily penetrated the opponents defence and smacked the fifth goal in the 31st minute which was closely followed by another field goal by Punam Barla. The first half of the game ended in favour of India who took the lead over DPR Korea by 6-0.
The second half continued with the same momentum as Indian eves dominated the match and maintained constant pressure on the girls of DPR Korea. India’s Rani brilliantly struck a hat-trick through a beautiful series of field goals in the 43rd, 44th and 46th minutes of the game and took the team’s score line to 9-0. The Indian girls were seen in more action and energy as they efficiently managed to score the tenth goal in the 51st minute through brilliant stick work of Lilima Minz. DPR Korea made clever attempts to enter India’s inner circle but failed to open their score card and Indian eves added three more goals to their account in the 52nd, 64th and 70th minute respectively and defeated DPR Korea taking winning scores to 13-0.
The 7th Women’s Junior Asia Cup 2015 is a qualification tournament for the FIH Junior World Cup (Women) 2016. India’s next clash will be against Singapore on 6th September at 02.30 pm IST.
