The Indian U-18 Women’s Hockey team today started their Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games campaign with a 4-2 victory over Austria in their first Hockey 5s match of the competition here at the Parque Polideportivo Roca. After the Men’s team’s victory earlier in the day, the U-18 Women’s team were helped by goals from Lalremsiami (4′, 17′), skipper Salima Tete (5′) and Mumtaz Khan (16′) as Austria’s Sabrina Hruby (13′) and Laura Kern (20′) scored for the opponents.
The Indian team started the match well as they scored twice in the opening five minutes as Vice-Captain Lalremsiami (4′) and Captain Salima Tete (5′) led from the front and registered their names on the score-sheet. India took their two-goal advantage into the half-time break but the Austrian team did trouble the Indians as they took a total of 9 shots in the match.
The second period started well for India’s opponents as they scored their first goal in the 13th minute through Sabrina Hruby, but India restored their two-goal advantage three minutes later as Mumtaz Khan also scored in the 16th minute. Another goal by Lalremsiami in the 17th minute saw India extend their lead to 4-1 and maintain pressure on their opponents. However, Laura Kern scored a consolation goal for Austria in the last minute to make it a 4-2 victory for India in their opening match.
The Indian U-18 Women’s team will now face Uruguay in their second match of the Hockey 5s competition on Monday, 8th October 2018, at 18.00hrs IST.