JAPAN (Tokyo):- Under the coaching of Sjoerd Marijne and under the Captainship of Rani Rampal lead Indian Women’s hockey team won the Olympic test event by beating host Japan in finals by 2-1 on Wednesday.
24-year-old Navjot Kaur scored the first goal in 11th minute of the match and put the Indian team in the lead but on counterpart, Japanese player Minami Shimizu equalize the lead by scoring a fabulous goal in 12th minute of the first quarter of the match and which help the host to still have the hope of winning the match.
But as we all know that Rani Rampal’s team was strong from the beginning of the Tournament and showed the quality of winning the tournament.
With the good combination of passes and strategies of Coach Sjoerd Marijne, Indian Women team managed to score a destructive goal by the help of 19-year-old forward Lalremsiami in 33rd minute of the match in the second half.
The Indian team was looking strong form the beginning of the match and dominated the first 10 minutes, and finally managed to find the breakthrough in 11th minute when Indian forward Navjot Kaur kept her nerves under pressure and produced a thrashing finish in front of the goal.
However, within a minute Japanese strike backed immediately with a well-crafted field goal by Shimizu and took the host on equalizer by 1-1.
In the second quarter, both the teams were focused on their defensive strategies and tread carefully in the attacking third.
Where India manage to create few chances in the first few minutes of second quarters when Vandana Katariya and Navjot Kaur combining well on the attacking, but could not produce a goal-scoring opportunity for India.On the counterpart, Japanese team also tried to create some opportunities of their own, with first-quarter equalizer goal-scorer Shimizu coming close to score her second goal of the match, but India’s strong defending line up defended well.
It was an aggressive start from the Rani Rampal’s team after the half-time break as they were managed to win themselves a penalty corner in the 33rd minute.
India’s prolific drag-flicker old 24 year Gurjit Kaur stepped up to take the execution, but her shot was saved by the Japanese goalkeeper Megumi Kageyama. And the deflection of the ball from Japanese goalkeeper straightway went in front of India’s 19-year-old young forward Lalremsiami, she did not make any mistake in putting the ball into the net which helps India to in lead once again by 2-1.
It was a huge blow to the host’s Japanese team who were finding it difficult to cope up with India’s rhythm, but after some good passes and tough efforts in the midfield, the Japanese team won back-to-back penalty corners in the 42nd minute. AsRani Rampal’s team was so strong in defense that could not help Japanese’s team to convert the signal penalty corner into the goal.
Rani Rampal’s team managed to get one more penalty corner in the 45th minute, but could not extend their lead by 3-1, as Japanese’s goalkeeper Kageyama made a diving save. Japanese’s team too got a couple of back-to-back penalty corners but 29 years experienced Indian goalkeeper Savita made a great save on the second attempt to make sure that India saw out a 2-1 win.
