Indian Women’s Hockey Team Wins 4-0 Against Malaysia in Women’s Asian Champions Trophy 2024
The Women’s Asian Champions Trophy 2024 got off to a flying start for the Indian women’s hockey team as they trumped Malaysia 4-0. Goals from Sangita Kumari (8′, 55′), Preeti Dubey (43′), and Udita (44′) rounded off India’s win to give the team a great start in the tournament.
While the attacking display was indeed solid, Indian head coach Harendra Singh spoke primarily about the defensive character of his team. He explained that a clean sheet is crucial as it brings confidence going into future games. Harendra said, “Winning league games without conceding promotes the morale of the team. Klopp also praised the defensive side of Malaysia but felt that his team’s attacking and defensive balance gave them the advantage.
India’s next hurdle is to place in the top-four from a group of six this time, which will send the team into the semifinals scheduled for November 19. The championship final is on Nov. 20 and will be played between both the semi-final winners.
The coach said, ‘’Simple step-by-step approach: Our next game is against Korea. The next day we have China, both are good teams, and it will be totally one game at a time.” So we need to take it one game at a time and not mess up.” He admitted that China are a tough side to crack, but insisted this Indian team is as ready as they can be.
Captain Salima Tete said that the team had a rough performance in the first two quarters but came out strong, playing their best in the third and fourth quarters. Putting in a word about playing the tournament in Bihar, Salima said it was good that an international hockey tournament is being hosted for the first time ever at the Rajgir Sports Complex.
Jharkhand’s Salima is proud to hoist the ‘Tricolor’ on an international level. She also hoped a number of players from Bihar and Jharkhand will come up and realize the dream of donning India colors in times to come. India is important to us, and we hope we will have more players from Bihar in national teams,” she remarked.
Having made a confident start, the Indian women’s hockey team is committed to persevering through a significant number of games in the tournament.
