Defending champions India continued its winning spree defeating China 3-1 for its second win in as many matches in the 5th Asian Champions Trophy Hockey Tournament for Women in Donghae, Korea, on Wednesday. India led 2-1 at half time.
A brace of goals by mercurial Vandana Katariya in the first 11 minutes gave India a comfortable 2-0 lead before a goal in dying seconds of the first quarter by Dan Wen made the score 2-1.Drag flicker Gurjit Kaur was the other scorer for India.
The second and third quarters saw the Chinese girls putting pressure but failed to break the Indian defence.
Indian girls were again on attack in the fourth quarter and saw them earning a couple of penalty corners. From the second penalty corner in the 51st minute, Gurjit Kaur scored with a crisp drag flick to make the issue safe for the defending champions. China did force two penalty corners in last 20 seconds but failed to score. In fact, in last six minutes, they had withdrawn their goalkeeper to add an extra attacker. But Indian girls played to a strategy and did not allow the Chinese to succeed.
With two wins India now tops the table as Malaysia that shocked Japan 3-2 in an earlier game are at the third spot behind the hosts Korea who have a win and draw from its first two games of the tournament so far. Korea had beaten Malaysia 3-1 but drew with Japan 1-1. For China it was its first defeat in the tournament. In the first game, China had beaten Malaysia 3-1.
Now India take on Malaysia in its next game.
