Women’s hockey team in ACT final

New Delhi: Defending champions India entered the women’s Asian Champions Trophy final, edging past Malaysia 3-2 for their third consecutive victory in Donghae City, Korea, on Thursday.

India, who beat Japan 4-1 and China 3-1 in their previous matches, qualified for the final with a pool match still in hand.

They now top the table with nine points and next take on hosts Korea in their final pool match on Saturday before Sunday’s final. Gurjit Kaur (17th minute), Vandana Katariya (33rd) and Lalremsiami (40th) scored for India while Nuraini Rashid (36th) and Hanis Onn (48th) netted for Malaysia.

The first quarter saw both teams trade penalty corners with India earning theirs in the very first minute. India, who beat Malaysia 6-0 in a warm-up match ahead of the tournament, made the breakthrough when penalty corner specialist Gurjit Kaur struck the ball into the bottom right corner.

India’s attacking intent was far from smooth but after the half time they began with fresh impetus, scoring off a counter-attack when Vandana dispossessed a Malaysian attacker inside India’s striking circle to score.

But India conceded a penalty stroke three minutes after going 2-0 up, allowing Malaysia to reduce the margin through Nuraini. India put further pressure after conceding and it helped them go 3-1 up when Lalremsiami scored from close range.

Hanis gave Malaysia hope, making it 2-3, but it was all they could achieve.