Striker Deepika converted a penalty stroke three minutes from the final hooter to lead India to a tense 3-2 win over South Korea in the women’s Asian Champions Trophy on Tuesday. India raced to a 2-0 lead in the first half through goals from Sangita Kumari (3rd minute) and Deepika (20th, 57th) before Korea mounted a strong comeback in the third quarter and drew parity with goals from Yuri Lee (34th) and skipper Eunbi Cheon (38th). The match headed for an exciting finish with both teams pushing for that deciding goal and it was Deepika, who scored from the spot to seal India’s second consecutive victory in the tournament. India had defeated Malaysia 4-0 in their tournament-opener on Monday. The hosts will next play Thailand on Thursday.
In the first match of the day, minnows Thailand held Japan to a 1-1 draw, while reigning Olympic silver medallist China defeated Malaysia 5-0 to register their second consecutive win.
The Indians started from where they left on Monday and continued to play attacking hockey from the onset.
India’s dominance can be gauged by the fact that the Koreans didn’t have a single shot at the Indian goal in the first two quarters.
India, on the other hand, attacked the Korean defence relentlessly and created chances which resulted in two field goals.
It didn’t take long for the Indians to surge ahead as they opened the scoring in the third minute through Sangita.
Neha Goyal initiated the move and passed it on to Navneet Kaur, who found Sangita inside the circle. The striker beautifully received the ball, sidestepped her marker and then found the back of the net with a fine reverse hit.
India kept up the pressure on the Korean defence and their efforts bore fruit in the 20th minute when Deepika slammed one home from close range from Beauty Dung Dung’s pass from the right flank.
A minute later Preeti Dubey’s reverse hit was saved by an outstretched right leg of Korean goalkeeper Seoyeon Lee.
In the 24th minute, Sangita came tantalisingly close to scoring her second goal of the day, but her push from a Deepika pass went just wide of the post.
If the first half belonged to India, Korea came out all guns blazing after the change of ends and secured back-to-back penalty corners in the 34th minute and Lee pulled one back for her side from a rebound.
Motivated by the goal, the Koreans put pressure on the Indian defence and four minutes later secured a penalty stroke after an Indian defender unnecessarily brought a Korean striker inside the circle. Skipper Cheon stepped up and made no mistake to level the scores.
Penalty corner conversion continued to haunt the Indians as they failed to make use of the eight set pieces they secured in the match — four consecutively in the 39th minute.
In the last match also India earned as many as 11 penalty corners but converted just three.
Held to a 2-2 draw, the Indians decided to throw numbers upfront and mounted raids after raids on the Korean citadel and in the process secured penalty corners in quick succession but they lacked variation from the set pieces and the efforts were mostly one dimensional.
But the Indians got a chance in the 57th minute in the form of a penalty stroke, which Deepika converted with ease.
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