Captain Savita Punia led from the front with a scintillating performance as the Indian women’s hockey team overcame a stopwatch controversy to clinch the bronze medal by thrashing New Zealand 2-1 in a shootout at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Sunday.
This is the team’s first medal in the Commonwealth Games in 16 years.
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leading 1-0, India Accepted a penalty corner with less than 30 seconds to go for the final hooter, as the match went into a shootout after Olivia Meri’s draw.
In regulation time, India took the lead in the 29th minute through Salima Tete.
After their heart-wrenching defeat to Australia in a controversial semi-final, India showed intent to wrap up their campaign with a win and earn a podium finish.
The Indians were done by the wrong pace of a terrible timing in the shoot-out against Australia.
In the shootout on Sunday, India captain and goalkeeper Savita showed her class, making three stunning saves to give her team their third CWG medal.
After Megan Hull put New Zealand ahead, a tight Savita negated Rose Tynon, Katie Doerr and Olivia Shannon, while Sonika and Navneet posted a famous win for India.
The Indians came out on the attack and entered quite a circle, but failed to break New Zealand’s solid defence.
As the match progressed, India picked up the pace and used both sides to build up their attacks.
But it was New Zealand who came close to taking the lead in the first quarter in the form of a penalty corner, which was well defended by the Indians.
A few minutes later, Sangeeta Kumari’s shot on the target was blocked by the Kiwi defense.
Seconds later, Salima’s shot zoomed to the right of New Zealand’s goal.
The Indians continued in a similar fashion in the second quarter and had the better share of possession of the ball, but they failed to break New Zealand’s tenacious defence.
In the 26th minute, New Zealand came close to taking the lead through a counter attack.
India eventually broke New Zealand’s defense at half-time through Salima, who scored a rebound with a reverse hit after Navneet Kaur’s opening shot was saved by the opposition goalkeeper.
India kept up the pressure after changing ends and got their first variation in the 35th minute, but the opportunity went out of hand.
Minutes later, excellent work from Navneet and Neha Goel set it up for Sonika, who was supposed to bring her stick to the ball, but was unsuccessful.
Mary looked to have equalized for New Zealand against the running of the game in the 43rd minute, but the goal was denied after India went for a referral, claiming that the free hit the 5 m line. was not taken from.
The Indians won dangerously in the last quarter.
India got three consecutive penalty corners in the 52nd minute, but Gurjit Kaur failed to beat New Zealand’s custodian Grace O’Hallon.
The Indians went dangerously into the end of the match and with two and a half minutes remaining, Lalremisiami received an unnecessary yellow card, reducing his team to 10 players.
The Kiwis took advantage of this and secured a penalty corner with seconds from the hooter, resulting in a penalty stroke, as Navneet deliberately kicked the ball to the goal.
Meera stepped up and took the match into a shoot-out, bringing Savita on par.
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