TOKYO [JAPAN]
Indian women’s hockey team went down fighting against Great Britain 3-4 in the bronze medal match here at Oi Hockey Stadium — North Pitch on Friday. With this loss, the Indian women’s team finished fourth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, meanwhile, team Great Britain captured their third consecutive Olympic medal.
Great Britain started the match with a storming pace giving no chance whatsoever to the Indian forwards and in sequence creating very good opportunities for their forward line. But Indian goalkeeper Savita Punia rose to the occasion with some brilliant saves and made sure to lead the team goalless into the second quarter. The GB team soon made their dominance count as in second quarter after a brilliant run from the right flank by ES Rayer, they forced an own goal from Indian defender Deep Grace Ekka. Soon, the GB team doubled their lead via a beautiful pacy field goal by Sarah Robertson after Nisha got the green card.
Indian team then dramatically shifted their gears and scored two goals in quick succession — both via penalty corners through Gurjit Kaur — to level the match against Britain. Drag flicker Gurjit struck both PC to the left of Maddy Hinch and defence, giving them no chance whatsoever to even react. Vandana Katariya in the dying minutes of the first half gave the Indian team a very crucial lead with an absolute poacher of a finish after she latched on to a loose ball inside the D.
India led Great Britain 3-2 going into the second half. The second half saw more resolve from GB forwards. As they again stormed into the right flank and Pearne-Webb utilised a brilliant move as she came with a captain’s magic to equalise for the European team. A rough tackle in the D by Udita saw India going down to 10 players for 5 mins after she received the yellow card, early in quarter 4. Soon, the pressure and one-player advantage paid for Britain as Baldson gave the team lead through PC.
Indian forwards flocked GB’s D in the dying moments of the match but the Rio 2016 gold medalists made sure to hold their nerves and see the team through to win the bronze.