Junior Women's Hockey Asia Cup: India reaches semis, qualifies for World Cup

Indian women's junior hockey team registered a dominating win over Thailand in their last group game of Asia Cup to reach the semi-final of the tournament on Thursday.

With this win, India also qualified for the Junior World Cup 2025 to be held in Chile.

India dominated on every front and won 9-0 decimating their opponents.

Deepika scored four goals while Kanika Siwach registered the hattrick during the Indian domination.

Sakshi Rana and Lalrinpuii also scored for India.

Indian team started dominating from the word go but failed to get on the scoresheet in the first quarter.

India found the opening goal early in the second quarter as Captain Jyoti Singh provided an assist to Vice Captain Sakshi Rana whose powerful shot from distance found the net.

Moments later in the 23rd minute, India received their third penalty corner.

The ball went to Kanika Siwach who scored from a brilliant dragflick to increase the advantage. India added another goal in the 25th minute as Kanika Siwach scored from another penalty corner to make it 3-0.

The fourth goal came soon in the 27th minute with a field goal by Lalrinpuii and the fifth came from Deepika in the 28th minute through a penalty corner.

The third quarter began with a penalty corner for India which was converted by Deepika.

The top-scorer of the tournament, Deepika scored another field goal in the 35th minute to complete her hat-trick.

In the 40th minute, India played a string of good passes in the shooting circle and found the eighth goal with a close-range strike from Lalrinpuii.

Thailand did well to fend off India’s attacks in the fourth quarter but Deepika continued her scoring spree and bagged a field goal to end the game 9-0 and progress into the Semi Final.

India will next face Japan in the semi-final on December 14.