The Indian women’s hockey team scripted history on Monday by qualifying for the Olympic Games semifinals for the first time, beating three-time champions Australia.
Going into the match, mighty Australia was the firm favorite to win the game. And the odds were totally against India, but they put on an extraordinary performance to pull off a victory. Indian Team showed a lot of courage. They were determined and showed a brave fight against the three-times Olympic gold medalist in the quarterfinals.
Indian women’s hockey team scripts history!
India’s solitary goal came in the 22nd minute when Drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur converted India’s lone penalty corner. So far, in the tournament, India didn’t have a great record in Penalty corners. The team secured 33 penalty corners out of which they’ve managed to convert just four chances with all the goals coming through variations. Gurjit Kaur rose to the occasion when it mattered and scored her first goal in the Olympics games. Savita Punia once again stood tall and made some great saves today.
Indian women’s hockey team finished at fourth place in Pool A with six points. They won their last two matches against Ireland and SouthAfrica to make it to the quarterfinals. Whereas, Australia topped Pool B with an all-win record. This shows how brilliantly the Indian team played in the quarterfinals to knock out world number two Australia to secure a place in the semi-finals.
This is India’s best performance in the Olympics games. After the 1980 Moscow Games where they finished fourth out of six teams, the Indian women’s hockey team made their first appearance in Rio Olympics 2016. They finished 12th out of 12 teams in 2016. Then making a strong comeback in the Tokyo 2020 and qualifying for the semifinals for the first time – unarguably India’s greatest moment in hockey history.
India will face Argentina in the semi-final on August 4.