Amstelveen, Aug. 27 -- The Indian women's hockey team pulled off a dominant 3-1 win over higher-ranked Germany in a classification match to finish a creditable fifth in the FIH World Cup, its best show in 52 years, here on Thursday.
Navneet Kaur (44th and 47th) scored a brace to play a major role in the win as India ended their campaign on a high. Ishika (43rd minute) was the other goal getter for India. Lynn Krings pulled one back for Germany in the 59th minute.
This was the Indian women team's best performance since finishing fourth in the inaugural World Cup in 1974 under Ajinder Kaur's leadership.
The current Indian team has 11 World Cup debutants, and the fifth place finish makes it more noteworthy. Ninth-ranked India suffered just one defeat in the whole tournament -- at the hands of Olympic champions and hosts the Netherlands (0-2). This performance will undoubtedly boost the Indian team's confidence ahead of next month's Asian Games. The Indian team, which held Olympic silver medalist China to a 2-2 draw in the opening match, defeated South Africa 6-1 but then drew with England.
Having eliminated from the semi-final race after a goal-less draw against Australia in the final match of the second round, India pulled out all the stops against Germany, scoring three goals in the final 17 minutes.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.