India's junior women's hockey team kicked off its tour of Belarus with a 4-1 loss to the Belarus senior women's team in Baranovichi, Belarus.
High on confidence, courtesy of having won the Cantor Fitzgerald U21 International 4-Nations, India started proceedings at a very fast pace. Within the opening minutes of the match they won a penalty corner, and Gagandeep Kaur made no mistake to convert and give India the lead.
After that goal though Belarus pulled up their socks and hit back with a penalty corner of their own. Sviatlana Bahushevich converted to draw them level. The two teams went into the break level on a goal apiece.
After a frenetic first quarter both teams settled down in the second, and as a consequence, the pace of the game dropped considerably. Belarus won the first PC of the period and Krestsina Papkova scored the goal to give them a 2-1 lead they would take into half time.
The third quarter started with India hoping to take more control of the game in midfield and draw themselves level. Belarus though scored via a PC conversion in the opening minutes of the period, Yuliya Mikheichyk making the score 3-1.
In a productive period they scored another to extend their lead to 4-1.