The Indian women’s team successfully defended the Asian Champions Trophy 2024 at the Rajgir Sports Complex here on Wednesday with a 1-0 win against China.
India started off cautiously and, like previous three matches, failed to score in the first quarter, this time courtesy of a Chinese onslaught, which they unleashed in the first few minutes. But China gets their first penalty corner around the 18th minute, which was stopped by Lalremsiami with her excellent block before Bichu Devi, the keeper, who makes a brilliant save by diving to her right. Meanwhile, China’s Deng Qiuchan got penalized for the second time in the match, which led to her sitting out of the match for five minutes.
India received four penalty corners at the 20th minute but were unable to convert any one of them, while Sangita Kumari received a green card for lifting the ball dangerously, which resulted in her being out for two minutes. The first and second quarters went goalless, and during the final minute of the second quarter, Neha also received a green card.
But in the 31st minute of the third quarter, Deepika, with the 11th goal of the tournament, opened the goal-scoring chart of the game with a fantastic backhander from the PC towards the bottom right corner. Deepika was on the verge of another goal in the 42nd minute but was blocked by a fantastic save from Li Ting under pressure, diving low to her right side.
India managed to hold its 1-0 lead in the fourth quarter, and with this, they won their second successive Women’s Asian Champions Trophy. This victory against China was a hard-fought one for India and was nothing like the 3-0 win that they got against China in the opening part of the tournament.
This was India’s third Asian Champions Trophy, bringing them level with the Republic of Korea as the most successful nation in the competition’s history.
And with this victory, the Bihar government has decided to award Rs 10 lakh to each and every playing member of the team along with chief coach Harendra Singh, while the rest of the support staff will receive Rs 5 lakh each.
