India beat Japan 2-0, to face China in final

Rajgir (Bihar): Defending champions India continued their unbeaten run and defeated Japan 2-0 to enter the final of the women’s Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament here on Tuesday.

Vice-captain Navneet Kaur converted a penalty stroke in the 48th minute while Lalaremsiami struck from field play in the 56th minute for India, who had plenty of scoring chances including 13 penalty corners. India will face China, whom they defeated in the league stages, in the final on Wednesday.

Earlier, China beat Malaysia 3-1 in the first semifinal. Malaysia will take on Japan in the third-fourth place match, while Korea finished fifth after beating Thailand 3-0 in the fifth-sixth place classification match.

The Indians continued their attacking game and put on early pressure on the Japanese defence, just like the last league game. The play was mostly inside the Japanese half as the Indian defence was hardly tested.

India had the first shot at the goal inside the initial five minute. Skipper Salima Tete’s attempt was thwarted by Japanse goalkeeper Yu Kudo.

The Indians repeatedly penetrated the Japanese citadel and in the process secured two penalty corners in a span of two minutes but Kudo was alert under the bar to deny Navneet Kaur and Deepika. Three minutes into the second quarter, India secured three back-to-back penalty corners but failed to find the back of the net. It was raining penalty corners for the hosts as they got back-to-back set pieces in the 21st minute but Kudo produced a brilliant save with her fully-stretched right leg to deny Deepika again.

In the 24th minute, India earned a penalty corner followed by another in the next minute but failed to get past Japanese goalkeeper Kudo, as they also lacked in execution. A minute after the change of ends, India secured two penalty corners but wasted both.