India teach Uzbekistan a hockey lesson, thrash them 22-0 in Women’s Junior Asia Cup

kakamigahara(Best Hindu News): The Indian junior hockey women’s team started their Women’s Junior Asia Cup 2023 campaign on a strong note, thrashing Uzbekistan 22-0 on Saturday. Annu scored maximum six goals from India. Mumtaz Khan and Dipika scored four goals each, while Vaishnavi Vil Phalke, Sunelita Topo and Deepika Soreng scored two goals each. Neelam and Manju Chaurasia contributed one goal each. The junior women, who began their campaign two days after the men’s junior team was crowned Asian champions, started the match on the front foot. Phalke opened India’s account in the third minute by converting a penalty corner, while Mumtaz doubled India’s lead three minutes later with a field goal.

Annu also scored his first goal of the match before the end of the first quarter. India dominated the contest in the second quarter as well and extended their lead to 10 goals with goals from Toppo, Chaurasia, Soreng and Annu. Despite taking a strong lead before half-time, the Indian women showed no mercy to a seemingly helpless Uzbek defense and kept it raining goals. In the second minute of the third quarter, Deepika converted a penalty corner while Annu scored two more field goals to extend India’s lead to 13-0. Mumtaz and Deepika scored their second goal each before the end of the quarter to extend the lead to 15 goals. In the fourth quarter, Neelam (47th minute) opened her account, while Deepika and Mumtaz also scored a goal each. Annu completed his six goals by scoring a penalty in the 51st minute. Phalke also scored his second goal in the 56th minute. Before the end of the match, Deepika (56th minute) and Mumtaz (60th minute) scored a goal each to end the match on a high note. The next match of the Indian team will be against Malaysia on Monday.