Mumbai: With each goal India scored, the celebrations remained rather muted, both on and off the pitch. Except for that one goal late in the 57th minute.
They won the Nations Cup to earn promotion to the top-flight FIH Pro League, then they finished an impressive fifth at the World Cup last month. Matches against minnow teams may have come early for India, yet they still need to be won. The Indian women’s hockey team has been growing in confidence since June. And once again, the Indian team got off to a flying start with Sehrawat scoring in the second minute through a penalty corner.
India knows though, that these results are coming against teams well below their standard, and there are bigger challenges ahead as they head to the latter stages of the tournament. And so they celebrated each goal with a smile and a few high-fives. Then came that goal by Deepika Sehrawat towards the end. It was her ninth of the day, and it helped her break her own record of scoring the most goals by an individual player in a women’s hockey match at the Asian Games. Lalremsiami, Sakshi Rana, captain Salima Tete, veteran Neha Goyal chipped in with goals as Thailand struggled to string together any passes to threaten the Indian goal.
The team may be in good form, but the target at the Asian Games is to win the country’s first gold medal in the women’s hockey tournament since the event was introduced to the Asiad roster in 1982. And with that gold comes the coveted quota for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The team’s designated drag-flicker, in fact, scored each of her nine goals through penalty corners.
