India in final of Women’s Junior Asia Cup, qualify for Hockey World Cup

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New Delhi. The Indian junior women’s hockey team defeated hosts Japan 1-0 in their semi-final encounter of the Women’s Junior Asia Cup 2023 at Kakamigahara, Gifu Prefecture, Japan on Saturday. Sunilita Toppo (47′) scored the only goal of the match.

The win meant that the Indian team would be competing in the final of the prestigious tournament for the second time, having previously reached the final in 2012. India qualified for the Junior Hockey Women’s World Cup 2023 by reaching the finals of the tournament, which will be held in Santiago, Chile from November 29 to December 10, 2023, as the top three teams from the Women’s Junior Asia Cup 2023 qualified for the Junior World Cup. Had to get a place.

India immediately went on the attack and played a crucial game to put Japan under pressure. However, the hosts were determined not only to prevent India from taking an early lead, but also started creating scoring opportunities to put the pressure on India. Japan also won a few penalty corners but failed to convert them, resulting in a goalless first quarter.

The second quarter was as intense as the first, with both the teams constantly attacking to break the deadlock. Japan came close to scoring twice but India’s goalkeeper Madhuri Kindo made some fine saves to deny the hosts any further progress. Notably, neither India nor Japan were able to score in the second quarter as both sides went into the half-time break with the score at 0–0.

In the third quarter, Japan kept possession of the ball and made more attacks to put India on the backfoot. Although the Indian team got the right opportunity to take the lead when they got a penalty stroke, they failed to capitalize on it. Despite creating several chances, both teams failed to score as the third quarter also ended goalless.

The fourth quarter began with India dominating the game and it paid off when Sunita Toppo (47′) scored a brilliant field goal to give India a 1-0 lead. With the scoreline in their favor, India played more aggressively to prevent Japan from equalizing and focused their attention on ball possession and the strategy eventually paid off as the match went 1-1 in India’s favour. Ended up with 0.

India will now play either China or Korea in the final of the Women’s Junior Asia Cup 2023 on June 11.

–IANS

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