Indian women’s hockey team started its FIH Women’s World Cup campaign with a fighting 2-2 draw against China in Amstelveen, Netherlands, on Sunday.
Navneet Kaur (8′) and Deepika Sehrawat (25′) scored the two goals for India and helped them hold on to the Paris Olympic Silver medalist to a draw.
With this, India earned its first point of the World Cup and is currently tied for second place with China in Pool D behind England, who claimed a 4-0 win over South Africa in the other match of the Pool.
India made a strong start to the match and looked the better side in the first half, maintaining solid structure in both attack and defence.
They opened the scoring when Rutuja took a free hit outside the circle and found Navneet, who deflected the ball into the net with a sharp side-shot.
China then equalised just before the end of the first quarter after Shilpi Dabas committed a foul inside the circle, conceding a penalty stroke. Ying Zhang converted the stroke and levelled the score.
India regained the lead by converting a penalty corner in the 25th minute, when Deepika, who had won the corner with a fine run down the right flank, took the drag-flick.
Her shot took a couple of deflections from Chinese defenders, making it difficult for their goalkeeper to react, and the ball found the back of the net.
China came out stronger in the third quarter, dominated the Indian defence, and did not allow them to come out of their final third even once.
Their pressure eventually earned them their first penalty corners of the match, which Ma Ning converted with a well-placed drag-flick into the bottom left corner to equalise once again.
Then, in the final quarter, it turned into an end-to-end contest, with both teams creating chances but failing to convert them, and the match ended in a draw.
India will next face South Africa (18 August) and England (20th August) in their two remaining group-stage matches, aiming to finish in the top two and advance to the next round.
