New Delhi: Jaspreet Kaur and Rani Rampal scored a hat-trick each to help Indian Women thrash minnows Kazakhstan 8-0 in their opening match of the Hockey World League Round 2 at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here Monday.
As expected, the 33rd-ranked Kazakh girls were no match for the 11th placed hosts, who controlled from game from start to finish and earned as many as 15 penalty corners as against none by their rivals. India's defence was hardly troubled by the Kazakhs as they were constantly busy in thwarting the home team's forays into their attacking third.
The Indian Women scored four goals apiece in each half to make short work of their unfancied rivals. Drag-flicker Jaspreet (8th minute, 21st, 54th, 70th) was star performer for India, scoring four goals alone including a hat-trick. She scored her first three goals from penalty corners while the fourth one came from a penalty stroke in the final minute of the game.
Rampal (15th minute, 26th, 41st,) was not to be left behind as the young striker also scored a hat-trick to help India's cause. Soundarya Yendala also registered her name in the scoresheet, pouncing on a rebound in the 48th minute from one of the 15 short corners they earned in the match. The Indian Women will take on Malaysia Tuesday in their second round-robin game of the women's competition in HWL.
Meanwhile, in the earlier women's matches of the day, top-seeded Japan demolished Fiji 14-0, while Malaysia got the better of Russia 3-1 India's chief coach Neil Hawgood was visibly satisfied with his wards' performance but said they can't afford to take Malaysia lightly.
"We thoroughly dominated the match but gave away a few soft turnovers. I am not worried about the fact that we didn't score enough through field attempts because it was such a match where we could get plenty of penalty corners" Hawgood said.
Asked about their next opponent, the Australian said:"Malaysia is a good team and in modern day hockey rankings hardly matters." India captain Ritu Rani too agreed with her coach.
"I am happy that the team did well but we could have scored more goals today," she added.
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