The Indian women’s hockey team won a tense semi-final shootout against Ireland in Valencia, Spain on Friday to make the FIH Women’s Nations Cup 2022 final.
Udita (44’) equalised for India after Carroll Naomi (14’) put Ireland ahead. Level at 1-1 at the final hooter, India won the shootout 2-1 to set up a final clash against Spain on Saturday.
Friday’s win keeps India’s hopes of getting promoted to the FIH Pro League for the 2023-24 season alive. The winner of the inaugural Women’s FIH Nations Cup will be promoted to the Pro League next year.
India, who led the head-to-head record against Ireland 4-3 coming into the match, started brightly and bossed possession. However, the Indian team lacked the cutting edge in the opposition third to put the opposition goal in danger.
Ireland slowly got a foothold in the game and reaped the rewards in the closing seconds of the final quarter. Carroll Naomi broke with pace and beat Indian goalkeeper Savita Punia with a well-placed drive to give the Irish women a 1-0 lead.
India, the world No. 8 in the latest hockey rankings, looked for an immediate response in the second quarter and Indian vice-captain Deep Grace Ekka came close to levelling things up. Her low drive from a penalty corner took a deflection and stranded Irish custodian Elizabeth Murphy but came out after rattling the post.
With just over a minute left in the second quarter, India won another penalty corner, which the Irish defenders managed to thwart. From the resulting counter, Naomi seemed to have beaten Savita again but the celebrations were cut short as the goal was chalked off due to a back-stick foul after a review by the Indian team.
The half-time hooter sounded with the score 1-0 in favour of the Irish.
The third quarter saw the Indian team come out all guns blazing in search of an equaliser. An inspired goalkeeping display by Murphy, though, kept the Indian team at bay. The player from Dublin pulled off several brilliant saves, including multiple penalty corners.
Murphy’s valiant resistance was finally broken by Udita, who after being denied several times by Murphy, managed to beat the Irish keeper with a perfectly-placed PC in the bottom corner.
The third quarter saw a similar flow to the game with India piling on the pressure in search of a winner while Murphy continued her resolute stand. The final hooter sounded with the score at 1-1 as the match went into a shootout.
Both Murphy and Savita produced goalkeeping masterclasses in the shootout but it was India who finally had the last laugh as they won the shootout 2-1.
India will face home team Spain, who beat Japan in the other semis, in the final.
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