India opened their campaign by handing a 12-0 thrashing to Canada in the Hockey Women’s Junior World Cup in Santiago, Chile
Mumtaz Khan led the charge with four goals as India reduced this Pool C match to no contest by scoring at will. Other scorers were Annu (4’, 6′, 39’), Monika Toppo (21’),Deepika Soreng (34’, 50’, 54’) and Neelam (45’)
India attacked from the very start and never allowed their rivals to settle down. The girls in blue kept consistently pressuring Canada and took an early lead as Annu scored two goals from penalty corners.
Despite taking a two-goal lead, India continued with their aggressive style, pushing Canada on the backfoot. However, the Indians led by Preeti, was unable to find more goals in the opening quarter as it ended 2-0 in their favour.
India carried the momentum from the first quarter into the second period. They maintained possession, consistently penetrating Canada’s circle and found the sustained pressure paid off with Dipi Monika Toppo and Mumtaz Khan netting a field goal each, further extending the lead.
In the meantime, Canada won a penalty corner but were unable to make the most of it. As the first-half concluded, India held a commanding 4-0 lead.
Despite having a healthy lead, India showed no signs of slowing down in the third quarter and continued to dominate the proceedings with Deepika Soreng converting a penalty corner following which Annu completed her hat-trick.
Mumtaz Khan scored her second goal of the match. Neelam then smashed home from a penalty corner to make it 8-0 for India as the penultimate quarter drew to a close.
India’s pursuit for more goals persisted into the fourth quarter as Deepika Soreng and Mumtaz Khan scored two goals each to wrap up their respective hat-tricks and led India to a 12-0 win.
After the match, Deepika said, “Our team has been working very hard for this tournament from the last one year. We did some mistakes today as well, but we will try to rectify all those mistakes and score more goals when we meet Germany in our next match.”
In other matches: Korea defeated Zimbabwe 6-0,Netherlands drew 2-2 with Australia, Argentina piped Spain 1-0, Belgium thrashed Germany6-0 , chile beat South Africa 1-0
India will face last edition’s runners-up Germany in their second match .
