Hat-trick by Vandana, Deep Grace and Deepika, Indian women’s hockey team reaches semi-finals – Dainik Savera Times

Hangzhou: With the help of experienced striker Vandana Kataria, vice-captain Deep Grace Ikka and Deepika’s hat-trick, India defeated Hong Kong 13.0 in the last pool match and entered the semi-finals of the women’s hockey event of the Asian Games. Vandana (2nd, 16th and 48th minutes) scored field goals while Deep Grace (11th, 34th and 42nd minutes) converted penalty corners. Sangeeta Kumari (27th and 55th minutes), Monica (7th) and Navneet Kaur (58th) scored the goals. India is on top in Pool A with 10 points from four matches.

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South Korea has seven points but has one match left. India’s goal average is much better than South Korea. Korea will face Malaysia in the last pool match. The top two teams from the pool will advance to the semi-finals. The Indian team had dominated the match from the beginning. Six goals were scored in the first two quarters and seven in the second. In the very second minute, Vandana scored a goal on Navneet’s pass. After this, India got two consecutive penalty corners but could not score a goal. India scored the second goal on Deepika’s counter attack.

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Monica and Deep Grace scored two more goals to take India’s lead to 4. Made it to 0. Vandana scored the second goal at the end of the second quarter. Three minutes before halftime, Sangeeta scored a goal on Monica’s pass, increasing India’s lead to 6. Made it to 0. The same trend continued in the second half also. Deep Grace completed a hat-trick by scoring two penalties in the third quarter. Vandana also scored a hat-trick by scoring a field goal. Deepika converted two penalty corners. Meanwhile, Sangeeta and Navneet also scored goals. India will play the second placed team of Pool B in the semi-finals on Thursday.