Riding on captain Savita Punia’s heroics in the shootout, the Indian women’s hockey team beat Canada 3-2 in the shootout in the 9th to 16th play-off match to register their first win at the FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup after both the teams finished 1-1 at the end of regulation time here on Tuesday.
Madeline Secco (11th) gave Canada the lead before Salima Tete (58th) scored the equaliser for India late in the match. Savita, who put up a scintillating show, made a total of six saves in the shootout, while Navneet Kaur, Sonika, and Neha converted their chances to help India register their first win in the competition.
The match began with India retaining most of the ball possession, attempting to create space in Canada’s half but failing to cause much damage. Canada, on the other hand, took some time to settle down and started to put pressure on India. Trailing by a goal, India started the second quarter aggressively and penetrated the Canadian defence on several occasions. One such opportunity came in the 25th minute when Vandana and Navneet combined to take a shot on goal, but Canadian goalie Rowan Harris averted the danger.
Minutes later, India conceded yet another penalty corner, but Savita made a brilliant save. India then went on to earn back-to-back penalty corners but missed out on converting their chances. Desperately looking for an equalizer, India showed urgency to convert a goal in the final quarter. After several missed penalty corner attempts, India finally scored an equalizer in the 58th minute through Salima Tete, who found the back of the net through a perfectly executed set piece variation. Canada earned a penalty corner right away but missed out on converting it, thus ending the match at a 1-1 stalemate.