Mumbai: At the final hooter, there were contrasting reactions in both dugouts. India chief coach Sjoerd Marijne led a wave of high-fives among his players and coaching staff while his Chinese counterpart Alyson Annan was stony-faced as she stood in a dugout filled with forlorn expressions.
The India women had just held China to a 2-2 draw in their opening Pool D clash at the hockey World Cup. The match held significance beyond the World Cup given that both the countries are expected to vie for the gold medal at the Asian Games next month with the title winner earning a direct berth for the 2028 LA Olympics. “It’s better than a loss.
We got a point and that’s very good for us,” Navneet told FIH after the match. “We tried our best and we played well, it was a good learning for us that if we score early, how to keep the lead.”
In the 25th minute, India’s other in-form player, Deepika Sehrawat, made it 2-1 with a fortuitous drag-flick that deflected off two Chinese players before flying past the goalkeeper into the net. Neha Goyal played in a short pass from the right flank and Navneet used the pace to hit it towards the goal first-time. The shot threaded the needle, evading three defenders, a teammate, and a diving Liu Ping in the Chinese goal to creep into the far post. For all their recent disappointments, India were up inside eight minutes. Then they defended with discipline and control as China started to see more of the ball while searching for an equaliser. This was Deepika’s seventh goal in her last six games. China found their second equaliser in the 39th minute through a well-taken Ma Ning penalty corner, a drag-flick like Deepika’s. But they could not find the winner despite launching wave after wave of attacks.
