Indian Women's Hockey Team Ends Asian Champions Trophy Group Stage Undefeated

The Indian women's hockey team has shown exceptional performance, achieving five wins out of five in the Asian Champions Trophy. While playing against Japan in Rajgir, Bihar, the team had an impressive 3-0 win, officially wrapping up the group stage. 

The deadlock was broken in the 37th minute by Navneet Kaur who demonstrated a superlative strike. Player Deepika took her scoring to the next level by scoring two back-to-back penalty corner goals in the final quarter, putting her overall scoring tally at 10. Despite this high point, India will have to face Japan again on Tuesday to secure a place in the final.

Even though India dominated the possession of the game from the outset, scoring against their opponents proved to be a difficult task. The credit for this can be largely given to the stellar performance of Japanese goalkeeper, Yu Kudo. Kudo managed to keep the score at 0-0 by making several outstanding saves in the second quarter. 

However, just as they had in their game against China, India managed to flip the script after the half-time break. Navneet successfully took the lead for India, with a little help from Lalremsiami, a friendly free hit outside the circle, and a strong reverse hit. The two goals by Deepika in the final quarter took a big toll on Japan, throwing water on their hopes for a comeback.

In the other semi-final to be held on Tuesday, Malaysia and second-placed China will face off. Meanwhile, the fifth and sixth-place playoffs will see South Korea and Thailand going head to head.