Women's Hockey: India Win Nations Cup
Holding an extreme view and carting the ball out of the park is what interests him most. He is a hard hitter at all times. Fasten your seatbelts and read.
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By Slogger
First publised on 2022-12-20 06:55:10
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Holding an extreme view and carting the ball out of the park is what interests him most. He is a hard hitter at all times. Fasten your seatbelts and read.
View all posts by this Author
The Fifa World Cup relegated the huge achievement of the Indian women's hockey team to the sports pages as Messi and Mbappe occupied the limelight on the front page. But India's title win in FIH Nations Cup in Valencia in Spain by beating the host nation 1-0 in the final was outstanding. The Savita Punia-led team played exceedingly well throughout the tournament and kept its cool in the final to put it across Spain. The hard-earned title win also gave India a place in the Pro League in 2023-24.
India topped their group and remained undefeated. They beat Chile in the opening match and then beat Japan and South Africa to enter the semi-finals. They beat Ireland in the semis 2-1 in the shootout after the match ended in a 1-1 draw in regulation time. Skipper Savita Punia was outstanding in the shootout and denied the Irish women a win. The final was played at a fast pace as the Spanish women tried to unsettle the Indians. But they had not reckoned with the brilliance of Punia who saved a sure goal early in the match to thwart the Spanish team. Gurjit Kaur scored from a penalty corner in the first quarter to give India the lead. It turned out to be the winning goal as Spain tried hard but could not equalize.
The Indian team has had a very good year in 2022. Savita Punia said on landing in India that the team will not rest on its laurels and will look to perform well in the Pro League. But with hockey now becoming more oriented towards scoring from penalty corners, India will have to work hard on this as its conversion rate from penalty corners is very poor. Head coach Janneke Schopman will have to work with the team to develop a couple of penalty corner specialists and also add more teeth to the striking capabilities as India looks good in defence and Savita Punia is like a rock in the goal.
picture courtesy: olympics.com - caption ours
