Indian women's hockey team qualifies to quarterfinals of the Olympics after 41 years

The Indian women's hockey team has made its mark in history at the Tokyo Olympics, as they qualify for the quarterfinals Games after a gap of 41 years.

The courtesy of this journey, of course goes to the Indian team, who, despite having a poor start of losing three consecutive matches, stayed in contention after winning their last two matches in Pool A of the women's hockey competition. All they needed were Great Britain defeating Ireland in their last pool match, which exactly turned true as Ireland succumbed to a 0-2 defeat against Great Britain on Saturday evening.

The Indian Eves were hammered a 1-5 defeat in their opening game in Pool A against the world no.1 the Netherlands on July 24. In their second game against Germany, India lost a closely fought battle at 0-2. They faced their third consecutive defeat by 1-4 against Great Britain.

The Rani Rampal led side, however, managed to turn around fortunes in their fourth pool-stage game, where India defeated Ireland by a slender margin of 1-0, courtesy: a goal by Navneet Kaur. The last game unfolded on Saturday when a hat-trick by India's veteran forward Vandana Katariya helped the side seize a 4-3 win against South Africa.

This is the Indian women's hockey team's third appearance in the Olympics. During their first appearance in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, the team had finished at fourth place. It took another 36 years for the team to again qualify for the Olympics in the 2016 Rio Games. However, a disappointing outing with no wins had robbed their chances to move into the quarterfinals last time.

The Indian women's hockey team ushered in a watershed moment in the history of Indian hockey as they scripted the biggest victory by overcoming a stiff challenge from World No. 2 Australia in the quarterfinals to make it to their very first semi-finals at the Olympics.