India women outclass Malaysia

Defender Gurjit Kaur scored twice as the Indian women's hockey team brought its Commonwealth Games campaign back on track with a 4-1  drubbing of Malaysia in its second Pool A match on Friday.

Two penalty corner conversions in the  6th and 39th minutes by Gurjit and a goal each from skipper Rani Rampal and Lalremsiami's in the 56th and 59th minutes respectively helped India post a comprehensive victory.

The victory was just what the team needed to recover from the shock of its opening 2-3 loss to lower-ranked Wales.

"It's quite a good result, in the second half we did much better. Malaysia played well in the first and second quarters and didn't give us much space," India captain  Rani said after the win.

Malaysia's lone goal in the 38th minute came from a defender's stick with Nuraini Rashid converting a penalty corner.

"Yesterday (Thursday 5 April) was a bad day, but in sport sometimes you lose and we now have to bounce back. Today our defensive structure was good and we played a controlled game," Rani said.

The Indian  eves will next play England on Sunday.

Malaysia captain Siti Ruhani said her team was guilty of giving away too many chances to India.

"This game was a close competitive match except for the last quarter. We gave them too many chances to score," she said. "The previous result against India was a 2-0 loss (2017 Asian Cup), but this performance showed we have improved," she added.