Asian Games Hockey: Indian women's team loses to China, will fight for bronze

One of the favourites to reach the gold medal match, the Indian women's hockey team was stunned by China in the semi-finals of the Asian Games 2023 on Thursday.

The silver medalist from the 2018 edition, India entered the tournament as the World number seven was completely outplayed by China in front of a packed crowd.

Jiaqi Zhong (25th minute), Meirong Zou (40th), Meiyu Liang (55th), and Bingfeng Gu (60th) scored the goals for China.

The Chinese managed to enter their opponent's circle frequently but failed to find the back of the net as the Indians defended stoutly.

China's relentless pressure resulted in back-to-back penalty corners in the sixth minute but failed to get past India captain Savita in front of the goal. The Indians made a few circle entries but failed to yield any results from them.

The Chinese secured another penalty corner in the 11th minute but once again Savita came to her side's rescue.

Three minutes into the second quarter China earned another penalty corner but Bingfeng Gu's flick was saved by Savita. The Indians looked completely out of sorts as the Chinese continued their domination. The coordination between the midfield and forward line was completely missing as India failed to create any clear-cut scoring chance.

China, on the other hand, earned their fifth penalty corner in the 25th minute and Zhong made no mistake to hand the hosts the slender lead at half-time.

The Indians continued to play defensive hockey and the ploy backfired as China secured back-to-back penalty corners 10 minutes into the second half and Zou found the back of the net after getting a deflection from the stick of an Indian defender.

However, India managed three more penalty corners, the second of which was converted by Udita but again the goal was disallowed for a raised ball.

The fourth and final quarter belonged to India but goals eluded them as all the 11 Chinese players fell deep to keep their lead intact.