FIH Pro League: Indian women's team end their campaign with a defeat

The Indian women's hockey team ended their FIH Pro League campaign with a close 2-3 defeat to the host, Great Britain, finishing their 2023-24 season in 8th position in London, England, on Sunday.

The Indian women's team came into this match after a heartbreaking loss to Germany on Saturday, where they lost despite an early 2-0 lead. They followed the same pattern in this match, conceding two penalty corner goals in the final five minutes.

Great Britain started the match with a dominating performance, which eventually led to a goal on a very quick counter-attacking run. Watson Charlotte (3') scored the first goal for them in a one-on-one battle with Savita.

India bounced back well and put pressure on the British team, finally scoring a beautiful goal in the dying minutes of the first quarter as Lalremsiami converted a deflection on the far side of the goal.

The Indian team continued their good forward run in the second quarter and won plenty of penalty corners with their continuous pressure. Eventually, Navneet Kaur earned the lead for the team as she deflected in a reverse shot from Baljeet Kaur.

In the third quarter, Great Britain had an aggressive start, but somehow the Indian defense was able to stop them in their tracks with timely interceptions. They entered the final quarter holding on to their one-goal lead.

With 5 minutes on the clock, the British side subbed off their goalkeeper and added another outfield player. This decision proved beneficial as they quickly won a penalty corner, which was impressively converted into a goal by Grace Balsdon.

Then, in the span of 2 minutes, Grace claimed her brace by converting another penalty corner, confirming the victory for the hosts and leaving the Indian side in despair.

The Indian women's hockey team ended their season with eight consecutive losses and finished in 8th position in the league table with just 8 points out of their 16 matches.