Women's Junior World Cup: Indian team thrashes Canada 12-0

Indian junior women's hockey team opened the FIH Hockey Women's Junior World Cup 2023 with a big win after defeating Canada 12-0 in the opening game on Wednesday.

Mumtaz Khan scored four goals, Annu and Deepika Soreng recorded hattricks and Neelam and Dipi scored one goal each to complete the rout.

Led by defender Preeti, the Indian team started with an offensive approach and went 2-0 up in the first six minutes as Annu converted two consecutive penalty corners.

India kept the attacking game on but failed to score any more goals in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, India maintained possession and penetrated the circle consistently. Dipi and Mumtaz scored two field goals in the second quarter to make sure that the Indian team went into half-time with a 4-0 lead.

Despite having a healthy lead, the Indian team showed no signs of slowing down in the third quarter and continued to dominate the proceedings with Deepika Soreng converting a penalty corner, following which Annu completed her hat-trick, while Mumtaz Khan scored her second goal of the match.

Also, Neelam smashed home her shot from a penalty corner to make it 8-0 for India by the end of the penultimate quarter.

The Indian team's hunger for goals persisted into the fourth quarter, resulting in strikes by Deepika Soreng and Mumtaz Khan which not only saw both players complete their hat-tricks but also India winning the game 12-0.

India will face a tough opponent in Germany in their second game on 1st December.