Indian women's hockey team suffers third straight defeat, loses to Great Britain 4-1
Great Britain -- Rio Olympic Games-2016 gold medalist -- kept storming the Indian goalpost and exposing the weak line of defence.
FollowThe Indian women's hockey team lost to Great Britain 4-1 in their Pool A match at the Oi Hockey Stadium to register their third consecutive defeat. Earlier, the Indian women had lost to the Netherlands and Germany.
Indian women were caught off-guard as Great Britain -- Rio Olympic Games-2016 gold medalist -- stormed the Indian goalpost and scored in the 75th second of the start of the match.
Hannah Martin scored off a deflection from an Indian defender's stick.
In the second quarter's fourth minute, Hannah scored by firing the ball between the legs of Indian goalkeeper Savita with a backhand.
Indian scored its first and only goal in the 23rd minute, with Gurjit Kaur's drag-flick from a penalty corner being brilliantly pushed into the goal by 19-year-old Sharmila.
The Indian eves played a tremendous game in the second quarter and tried to create opportunities continuously, but nothing worked.
At half-time, the Indian team was trailing 1-2.
After the second half, the Indian women again showed a strong game in the first seven minutes of the third quarter. In the second minute of the quarter, the Indian team got three consecutive penalty corners, one after the other. However, the Indian team's drag-flickers could not convert them into a single goal.
Soon, the Indian team seemed to have run out of steam for the rest of the quarter, and that saw the team conceding yet another goal. In the same quarter, Vandana Katariya was suspended, and Salima Tete was handed a yellow court.
In the second quarter, the weakness of Indian defenders was exposed. Great Britain took advantage and score after a careless clearance by Indian defenders from a saved penalty corner.
Great Britain, who were leading 3-1, turned to a completely defensive strategy in the fourth quarter, seeing their victory assured.
They kept the ball in their possession so that India doesn't get any chance to score.
Indian eves had to bear the brunt of a penalty stroke in the last 4 minutes of the fourth and final quarter against Great Britain.
Balsdon scored on a penalty stroke in the 57th minute to make the score 4-1.
