Harpal Singh Bedi in Jakarta
Gurjit Kaur led the charge as India playing with a clinical precision, pumped in three goals in the last quarter of the match to stun defending champion South Korea 4-1 to move into the semi finals of the Women hockey competition in the 18th Asian Games here on Saturday.
In an engrossing match in which both the teams were levelled 1-1 at half time, goal scorers for India were Navneet Kaur (16th), Gurjit Kaur (54th,55th) and Vandana Katariya (56th).
For the Koreans the lone scorer was Yurim Lee who converted a stroke.
India has won all the three matches so far scoring 33 goals while conceding one. Notwithstanding this Korea has also booked the last four berth from pool A.
Korea who faces Kazakhstan in the last league assignment on Monday, have two wins from three matches.They have scored 9 goals while conceding 4.
Earlier Malaysia routed Chinese Taipei 11-0 (half time 5-0) Japan beat China 4-2 (half time 4-1) Thailand piped Indonesia 2-0 (ht1-0).
India played well and defended superbly while the Koreans depend much on speed and counter attacks.
“We played well and were in control of the situation, but our speed dipped in the last quarter and that made the difference” said Korean coach S Huh after the game
India started the match with making couple of incisive forays but the Korean retaliating was quick and sharp. However Indian defence marshalled by Gurjit Kaur foiled all the attacks by the defending champions.
The Koreans had a chance to surge ahead in the 9th minute but Bomi Kim failed to connect the ball before the Indian goal.
Indians kept their nerve and made moves from both the flanks and the tactics paid off when in the 16th Minute Navneet Kaur breached the rival defence and send the ball home (1-0).
Surprised by the goal, Koreans launched a furious counter but this time Okju Kim failed to deflect a cross from the right.
However the Koreans managed to draw parity in the 21st minute when defender Deep Grace Ekka fouled a Korean striker in the circle resulting in a penalty corner which was converted by Yurim Lee (1-1)
A minute before the breather Indian goal just survived as Hyejn Cho fumbled and failed to put the ball in the open goal.
It was even battle in the third quarter, though the Koreans had major share of the ball but they failed to breach the Indian defence.
The teams shared the exchanges till the 53minute when suddenly India launched a blitz and pumped in three goals in as many minutes to seal the match in their favoure.
India forced their first penalty corner in the 54th minute and Gurjit Kaur with powerful drag flick send the ball into the net (2-1).
A minute later India earned another penalty corner and this time again Gurjit found the net (3-1). The two quick goals rattled the Koreans and before they could recover Vandana Katariya took advantage of the defensive lapse to send the ball home (4-1) asnd Koreans were left with no option but to give up.
“ Players fitness played a crucial role in our win” said a beaming Indian coach S.Marijne.
“We are deserving winners, the girls played to a plan and our penalty corner conversion was hundred percent” he said
On the whole it was team’s victory because every player played her role.We defended well and converted our chances” he added.