Indian women hockey: Disappointing start to Germany tour, Indian team lost 2-3 to China

Limburg. The Indian women’s hockey team’s tour of Germany got off to a disappointing start as the team suffered a 2-3 defeat against China. Navneet Kaur scored for India in the 24th and 45th minutes, while Chen Jiali (9th), Zhong Jiaqi (45th) and Xu Yanan (51st) scored for China in Sunday night’s match. Both the teams started cautiously in the first quarter. India got a penalty corner in the third minute but it was thwarted by the Chinese defence. Minutes later, India committed a foul and gave the opposition a penalty stroke opportunity. China took advantage of this to take the lead in the ninth minute through a goal from Jiali.

Read also: CONCACAF Gold Cup: Giménez’s goal helps Mexico beat Panama to win the cup

In the next few minutes, both the teams got penalty corners but neither team could take advantage of them. India made a positive start in the second quarter. The team got two consecutive penalty corners but the team failed to capitalize on them. Navneet equalized for India in the 24th minute by scoring a field goal. Navneet scored his second goal in the 45th minute to put India ahead 2-1. China, however, equalized soon after through Zhong’s penalty corner conversion. Yan’an scored another goal in the 51st minute to put China ahead 3–2, which proved to be the decisive score. India will now play two matches against Germany on Tuesday and Thursday.