Asia Cup India wins in sudden death after 4-4 in tie-breaker
India wins Asia Cup: India completed a rare double in hockey, winning both men and women's editions of Asia Cup. In the final of the Asia Women's Cup Hockey Tournament in Gifu, Japan, today, India won the battle of penalty shootouts in the sudden death.
By winning the title, India also remained the only unbeaten team in the tournament. Earlier South Korea beats the hosts and the defending champions Japan 1-0 in the bronze medal game.
India won the men's edition of Asia Cup in Dhaka last month. This is the third major title for India in last one year as India won the Junior World Cup in Lucknow in December last year. Never before India had so many titles to its credit in hockey.
After the two teams failed to resolve the 1-1 deadlock in the stipulated period of 60 minutes, the deadlock could not be resolved even in the penalty shootout as the teams ended with four goals each.
To break the tie, the sudden death rule was applied in which China muffed the first attempt and India through its captain Rani Rampal scored the clincher. This India has won the Asia Cup for women after a gap of 13 years.
Earlier, Navjot Kaur had given India the lead in the 25th minute which was neutralised by a penalty corner conversion by China's Tiantian Luo in the 47th minute.
Since the two teams played their best, credit must go to China for preventing India from repeating its earlier round-robin league performance where they had beaten Chinese girls convincingly at 4-1.
-PTC News
