Picture : Hockey India/ Twitter
India’s women’s hockey team put up a spirited display against Great Britain but it wasn’t enough to prevent them from going down 3-4 in the Olympics bronze medal play-off, at the Oi Hockey Stadium in Tokyo.
They fought back from two goals down and even took the lead but were beaten by a better side on the day.
Gurjit Kaur scored twice from penalty-corners after India were 0-2 down and Vandana Katariya put them ahead at the end of the second quarter to raise hopes of an upset victory over the world No. 4-ranked team.
However, despite a stellar display by goalkeeper Savita Punia, goals from Hollie Pearne-Webb and Grace Balsdon in the third and fourth quarter put paid to their hopes of winning India’s first medal in women’s hockey at the Games.
Sarah Robertson scored Britain’s second goal after they forged ahead with a bit of luck through Elena Rayer, whose shot was deflected into goal by India’s defender Deep Grace Ekka.
Britain went on the offensive from the start of the fourth and scored through Grace Balsdon in the 48th minute, after forcing three successive penalty-corners, to go 4-3 up.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the team for the effort in his tweet, We narrowly missed a medal in Women’s Hockey but this team reflects the spirit of New India- where we give our best and scale new frontiers.
We narrowly missed a medal in Women’s Hockey but this team reflects the spirit of New India- where we give our best and scale new frontiers. More importantly, their success at #Tokyo2020 will motivate young daughters of India to take up Hockey and excel in it. Proud of this team.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 6, 2021
