Indian eves drub Kazakhstan 21-0

It was target practice time for the Indian women as they blew Kazakhstan away 21-0 for their second victory in Asian Games hockey on Tuesday.

Almost the entire match in Pool B was played in the Kazakhstan area as India scored at will, leading 9-0 at half-time and pumping in 12 more in the second half.

India had beaten Indonesia 8-0 in their opening match but they stepped it up by a notch on this day. An opposition that had little clue on what was happening made their task easier. 

As the game wore on, the Kazakhs were clearly wondering why they were there out on the pitch taking such punishment. They did start the tournament well, defeating Thailand 3-1 in their opener but on this day, they were up against a different level of play.

Gurjeet Kaur opened the floodgates for India in the seventh minute, drilling home their third penalty corner. Two minutes later, Lalremsiami deflected in a hard hit by Nikki Pradhan to make it 2-0.

From then on, the flow of goals was unabated. Kazakhs tried to defend but could not stop the rampaging Indian forwards who kept sounding the board at regular intervals.

Neha Goel capitalised on a goalmouth melee to squeeze in the third in the 10th minute and India closed the first quarter with two more strikes from Navneet Kaur in the 11th and 12th minutes.

Navjot Kaur (16th) and Lalremsiami (19th, 30th) and Vandana Katariya (29th) got on to the score board in the second quarter and if one expected India to relax in the second half, it just did not happen.

Kazakhstan again failed to come anywhere close to the Indian goalmouth even as the Indians fired in more goals. Udita (34th) started the spree while Gurjit Kaur used the chance to fine-tune her penalty corner skills with goals in the 36th, 44th and 51st minutes. Vandana Katariya (37th, 53rd), Lilima Minz (38th, 45th), Deep Grace Ekka (43rd), Navneet Kaur (49th), Navjot (54) and Monika (55th) were the other Indian scorers in the second session.