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Journalism of Courage
HONG KONG, NOVEMBER 15: India and Japan have sealed their places in the final of the Asian Hockey Federation Cup hockey championship for under-18 girls here on November 19.
Indian girls made mincemeat of Chinese Taipei 16-0 in an embarrassingly one-sided encounter at the King’s Park hockey ground.
In an inconsequential match later in the evening, hosts Hong Kong brought cheers to the home fans with a 3-0 win over unpretentious Sri Lanka.
In a match where Hong Kong called all the shots, Emile Shaw and the irrepressible Sandra Frankland put them 2-0 up by the 23rd minute, both coming good on the penalty corners.
A stroke came Hong Kong’s way when Sandra was obstructed inside the circle. Barbara Mountain converted to seal Hong Kong’s win in an authentic way.It was India all the way in the mismatch against Chinese Taipei. Having taken enough pounding in the five-team round robin league already, Taipei were no match for the goal-hungry Indians.
In the end, the Indians helped themselves to a flurry of goals and some easy pickings made it a no-contest.
That India scored 13 of the 16 goals as field goals was an ample measure of the sway they held. Once Mamta struck in the fourth minute the floodgates were opened.
Skipper Surinder Kaur added it to three minutes later only for the fleetfooted Annarit Kerketta to strike twice in the eighth and ninth minutes. Simrajeet Kaur scored in the 11th and 12th minutes.
Surinder used the occasion to struck India’s first hat-trick, her effort coming in the 14th, 16th and 23rd minutes. When Mamata added one just before half-time, the scoreline read an imposing 10-0 at the breather.
Indians’ 11th goal came off a short corner, Surinder converting with aplomb two nminutes after the re-start. For the record, Annarita scored the 12th goal (43rd minute), Mamata 13th and 15th goals (47th and 55th) while Amrita got into the scoring act in the 51st minute. The final goal came from Sarita Lakra in the 59th minute.
