2 months ago
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With a spot successful the semifinals of the Qualifiers and, much importantly, successful the 2026 FIH Women’s World Cup secured pursuing Scotland’s triumph implicit Uruguay earlier successful the day, India produced a commanding show to decision Wales 4-1 successful the World Cup Qualifiers astatine the G.M.C. Balayogi Hockey Ground present connected Wednesday.
The big astir went up successful the 2nd minute. Sunelita Toppo latched onto Neha’s cross-field aerial changeable connected the near and recovered Lalremsiami successful the circle, but the forward’s archetypal interaction fto her down.
India continued to dominate, with Navneet and Lalremsiami linking good earlier goalkeeper Ffion Horrell rushed retired to halt a promising counter. The breakthrough came soon after.
Wales failed to wide their lines successful the look of sustained Indian pressure. Sakshi Rana pounced connected the escaped ball, shifted to her near and fired a almighty smash into the backmost of the net.
India kept pushing for a second, looking to settee the contention earlier the interval. The Welsh defence held steadfast for a while, relying connected disciplined positioning and a fewer wayward Indian attempts to enactment successful the game.
But the Women successful Blue doubled their vantage successful the 29th minute. Navneet Kaur created abstraction connected the borderline of the ellipse and struck hard, with the shot taking a deflection disconnected Horrell’s pad earlier uncovering the net.
It capped a ascendant archetypal fractional for India, which registered 15 shots to Wales’ 5 – with 5 connected people compared to the visitors’ solitary effort.
India kept its ft connected the pedal aft the interruption and added a 3rd done a punishment corner, Navneet striking into the bottommost corner.
A uncommon lapse successful attraction helped Wales propulsion 1 back. Betsan Thomas stole the shot from Udita adjacent the baseline, drove guardant and squeezed her changeable betwixt Bichu Devi and the adjacent post.
Navneet completed a hat-trick successful the dying minutes of the contest, guiding a precision onslaught disconnected the wrong of the close station and into the nett from a punishment country she won.
The partisan assemblage erupted astatine the last whistle arsenic India finished atop Pool B and booked a semifinal clash with Italy. England and Scotland volition look disconnected successful the different semifinal.
The results: England 2 (Grace Balsdon 20-pc, Holly Hunt 48) bt Austria 0; Italy 1 (Federica Carta 7-ps) drew with Korea 1 (Jiyun Choi 26-ps); Scotland 3 (Fiona Burnet 10-pc, Katherine Holdgate 43 & 58) bt Uruguay 1 (Teresa Viana 19-pc); India 4 (Sakshi Rana 7, Navneet Kaur 29, 34-pc & 55-ps) bt Wales 1 (Betsan Thomas 39).
