Asian Games 2023 Women's Hockey: Sangita Scores Hattrick As India Thump Singapore 13-0 In Opener

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Hangzhou, September 27: Sangita Kumari scored a hattrick as Indian Women's Hockey Team opened their Asian Games 2023 campaign with a thumping 13-0 win over Singapore 13-0 in a Pool A match at the Gongshu Canal Sports Park Stadium in Hangzhou, China on Wednesday (September 27).

Apart from Sangita, Udita, Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam, Deepika, Navneet Kaur, Deep Grace Ekka, Neha, Salima Tete, Monika and Vandana Katariya also got on the scoresheet for India against a hapless Singapore side, who drew a blank.

India dominated the match from the word go, pressing relentlessly and launching consistent attacks against Singapore courtesy of which they even won two early penalty corners and Udita (6') converted the second one to give them a much deserving lead early in the game.

Moments later after scoring their first goal, the Indian team won a penalty stroke and they capitalised on it through Sushila (8'), who slotted the ball in the left bottom corner to give her side a 2-0 lead.

The goals kept coming for India as Deepika (11') converted a penalty corner to extend her team's lead, following which Navneet (14', 14') netted two goals - one through a penalty corner and the other by smartly dodging the Singapore defenders and goalkeeper to give India a solid 5-0 lead by the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter continued in a similar fashion, with the Indian team maintaining control of the game through ball possession and relentless attacks, which once again paid off as Deep (17') and Neha (19') converted penalty corners with ease, while Sangita (23') scored a brilliant field goal as India entered the halftime with a commanding 8-0 lead.

Unflustered by their substantial lead, India continued their dominance as Salima (35') netted a field goal to make sure that the third quarter ended with India leading 9-0.

The Indian team showed no signs of slowing down in the final quarter as Sangita (47', 53') netted two goals, while Monika (52') and Katariya (56') scored a goal each to help India register a 13-0 win.

Indian Women's Hockey Team will next face Malaysia on Friday (September 29) at 4 PM IST in their second match of Pool A, that also includes South Korea and Hong Kong.

"It was a good performance, we are happy with the result. The young girls complemented the seniors well. It made our job easy," skipper Savita said after the match.

"We are taking match-by-match here. Our next focus is on Malaysia, we have ode day gap in which we will prepare and study Malaysia's game. We will just focus on our plans.

"There is also Korea in our pool and they are a very good team but we will try to win and top the pool. Our mindset is right, everybody knows why they are here. Our target is to qualify (for Olympics) directly," she added.