India 'A' women's hockey team go down 0-7 to New South Wales

PERTH: India A women's hockey team was handed a humiliating 0-7 defeat by New South Wales (NSW) in a one-sided contest at the 2017 Women's Australian Hockey League here. In what was only the second match in their maiden appearance, India A failed to even put up a fight against a strong NSW.

NSW took a 3-0 lead in the first quarter of the match itself to put the Indian eves on the back foot. Field goals by Emily Smith (2nd minute), Courtney Schonell (6th minute) and Jaime Hemmingway (12th minute) gave NSW an early edge over the visitors. Jessica Watterson added another goal to NSW's tally in the 18th minute, taking their overall lead to a dominating 4-0 in the second quarter. India, however, seemed to recover from the early setback as they put up a controlled defence in the following minutes, which restricted NSW forwards from making easy forays into the visitors' circle.

The change in defence-approach paid off as India kept NSW from scoring goals in the remaining minutes of the second and third quarters. On the other hand, breaking the NSW defence was a tough task for Preeti Dubey & Co. and repeated attempts by the Indian forwards to make successful circle penetrations were mired by a well-structured defence. In the final 15 minutes, NSW increased the intensity of their attack.

A major error in the circle saw India give away a penalty stroke in the 46th minute, which was successfully converted by Kaitlin Nobbs. Another penalty stroke given away in the 48th minute saw NSW take their total number of goals to six with Emily Smith converting it. But the agony was still not over for the Indians as Abigail Wilson netted another field goal in the 52nd minute to make it 7-0. India A will play South Australia in their next Pool B encounter on Monday.