Rotterdam, 22 Jun: The Indian women’s hockey team produced a dominating performance to outclass USA 4-0 in the second-leg match to finish a creditable third in its debut season at the FIH Pro League here on Wednesday.
\nThe Indians had earlier defeated USA 4-2 in the first match of the double header on Tuesday.
\nVandana Katariya (39th, 54th) scored a brace, while Sonika (54th) and Sangita Kumari (58th) sounded the board once for India.
\nArgentina have already won the title with Netherl-ands finishing second.
\nUSA started the match on a bright note and secured the first chance of the match a as early as in the second minute, but Elizabeth Yeager’s high shot was easily saved by India skipper and goalkeeper Savita.
\nThe Indians too had their chances soon after but Sharmila Devi wasted a golden opportunity as she failed to beat USA goalkee-per from close range.
\nAs usual, Salima Tete was a live wire from the right flank, creating chances for her side with her defence-splitting runs.
\nThe Americans secured their second penalty corner in the 11th minute but wasted the chance.
\nUSA once again started positively after the quarter break but the Indians drew in confidence as the match progressed.
\nIndia secured their first penalty corner in the 23rd minute but failed to execute the set piece.
\nThe Indians kept on attacking thereafter and earned two more penalty corners but the end result was the same as both the teams failed to break the deadlock at half time.
\nThree minutes into the third quarter, India secured a penalty corner but Navneet Kaur’s trap shot after initial fumble from the stopper was saved easily by USA goalkeeper Kelsey Bing.
\nBut it was Janneke Schopman’s girls who broke the deadlock in the 39th minute when Vandana got a faint touch to deflect in Gurjit Kaur’s flick from India’s fifth penalty corner.
\nThe Indians had numerous chances in the last two quarters. Navneet missed a sitter as her slap shot in front of an open goal went over the post. The Americans secured a penalty corner in the 43rd minute but India defended well.
\nIndia then scored three goals in a span of four minu-tes to seal the match. (PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rotterdam, 22 Jun: The Indian women’s hockey team produced a dominating performance to outclass USA 4-0 in the second-leg match to finish a creditable third in its debut season at the FIH Pro League here on Wednesday. The Indians had earlier defeated USA 4-2 in the first match of the double header on Tuesday. Vandana […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-193752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193752\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}