The Indian women's hockey team started their campaign with some authority at the 12th South Asian Games (SAG) as they crushed Nepal 24-0 at the Moullana MD. Tayabullah Hockey Stadium here on Sunday.
Forwards Soundarya Yendala (15th, 52nd, 62nd and 64th minutes) and Poonam Barla (7th, 472nd, 43rd and 51st) netted four times each. Four other players including Rani (2nd, 46th and 48th), Jaspreet Kaur (4th, 35th and 56th), Neha Goyal (14th, 22nd and 70th) and Deepika (53rd, 62nd and 67th) scored three goals each while Gurjit Kaur (21st and 41st) and Preeti Dubey (23rd and 29th) also got onto the scoresheet for the hosts.
The match started with the Indian eves on the front foot right from the opening minute. Rani scored the opening goal in the second minute. India continued to play an attacking game and were soon rewarded with a goal within two minutes through a penalty corner conversion from Jaspreet Kaur.
The first few goals boosted the confidence of the hosts and they continued to play an even more attacking game. The goals started to come thick and fast with the half time score reading 10-0 in favour of India.
The second half was a similar story. The Indian team just took six minutes to net the next goal which came from a penalty corner conversion by Gurji Kaur. The Nepal defence looked clueless in front of the attacking display by the hosts as they went on to score 13 more goals.
The Indian eves will play their next match against Sri Lanka on Monday.