Four Indian players scored a hat-trick each as the women’s hockey team mauled lowly Kazakhstan 21-0 to notch up its second consecutive win in the Asian Games here on Tuesday.
Goals rained thick and fast in the Pool B match at the GBK Hockey Field with as many as 10 Indians out of 18, who took the field, entering their names in the scoresheet.
The Indians scored almost at will against the hapless Kazakhstan team but the scoreline missed the all-time Asian Games record of 22-0 by a goal. The Indian women’s team had beaten Hong Kong 22-0 in the 1982 Asiad.
Navneet Kaur (11th, 12th, 16th, 48th, 48th) top-scored with five goals while drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur, who had also scored a hat-trick in India’s 8-0 thrashing of Indonesia in their opening match, had four strikes (8th, 36th, 44th and 51st).
Lalremsiami found the target in the ninth, 19th and 29th minutes while Vandana Katariya (28th, 37th and 52nd) was the fourth player to score a hat-trick in the lop-sided match.
India, who had won a bronze in the 2014 Asian Games, are currently ranked ninth while Kazakhstan are 34th in the latest FIH chart. India is the highest ranked team in the competition.
Gurjit scored the first goal for India in the eighth minute as she sent a low and powerful shot to the Kazakhstan goalkeper’s left.
A minute later, India were 2-0 up as as Lalremsiami connected a pass from Lilima Minz before Navneet struck her first goal two minutes later. India were 4-0 up in the 11th minute, with Navneet finishing off once again.
India got their sixth goal of the game in the 18th minute off a penalty corner conversion by Lalremsiami.
Just a minute before the end of the second period, India were 8-0 up with Vandana scoring with a superb shot. Lalremsiami added another one to complete her hat-trick at the stroke of half time to make the scoreline 9-0.
India added another 12 goals in the next two 15-minute periods to overwhelm their opponents.
