Hiroshima, 15 June

India opened their campaign at the FIH Women’s hockey Series Finals with an facile 4-1 win over Uruguay here on Saturday..

Ranked No.9 in the World, India opened their account as Captain Rani gave them a lead in the 10th minute with a skilful strike.

At the end of first quarter, India led the match despite Uruguay dominating the possession in the quarter and creating more opportunities. The South American side had four circle penetrations and two penalty corners, all of them kept at bay by an alert Indian defence.

India dominated possession in the second quarter. While Uruguay team was kept quiet, India kept making their moves in the Uruguayan half.

In the 21st minute, India got their first penalty corner as Gurjant Kaur didn’t make any mistake by converting it into a goal making it 2-0.

Third quarter had a scrappy start as both sides kept losing the ball initially. But soon, India got another penalty corner . Uruguayan goalkeeper Constance Schmidt-Liermann however brought off a good save.

Within the same minute, Uruguay got two penalty corners but none changing anything as India kept their defence tight to keep the score line at 2-0.

India’s constant pressure reaped dividends in the 40th minute. A nice pass from Vandana Katariya was ably converted by Jyoti to make it 3-0 for India, a scoreline that remained intact at the end of the 3rd quarter.

The fourth quarter didn’t look to have any different script. In the 50th minute, Neha Goyal had a chance to make it 4-0 for India when she fumbled a chance, inches from the goal post at the right corner.

Against the run of the play, a minute later, Uruguay finally found the back of the net with some individual brilliance from Maria Teresa Viana Ache. She ran through the Indian defence to score her team’s first in the 51st minute.

India wasn’t ready to sit on the lead as five minutes later and took a 4-1 lead. Captain Rani made a smart pass in the circle to Lalremsiami who was unmarked and she nudged the ball into Uruguayan goal.