Bhubaneswar: Indian women's hockey team took a giant leap towards Olympic qualification with a near-flawless performance to hammer USA 5-1 in the first leg of the two-match FIH Qualifier here on Friday.
It was expected to be a tricky tie for the hosts but the women punched above their weight to simply demolish USA's challenge in front of a partisan crowd at the Kalinga Stadium.
Dragflicker Gurjit Kaur (42nd and 51st) struck brace while Lilima Minz (28th), Sharmila Devi (40th) and Navneet Kaur (46th) were the other scorers.
USA's consolation goal came from a penalty stroke converted by Erin Matson in the 54th minute.
Ranked ninth in the world, India now need to defend their four-goal advantage in Saturday's second and final-leg to seal their Tokyo 2020 ticket.
The Indians exerted early pressure on the Americans but failed to create any clear cut opportunities.
USA got their act together with the passage of time and had a clear sight of goal in the seventh minute but Alyssa Parker shot wide from the top right of the striking circle with only Indian goalkeeper Savita to beat.
After a rather action-less opening quarter, the match livened up in the next quarters.
Barring a few instances, India coach Sjoerd Marijne was pleased with the performance of his team.
"Making use of opportunities is a quality, which we did pretty well today. You could see we played to our potential. We were really effective," he said.
"The speed of Sharmila and Salima, who are just 17 and 18, were brilliant."
Marijne begs to differ that the 5-1 scoreline has taken his side on the thresh-hold of an Olympic ticket.
"Absolutely not. We haven't got the ticket to Tokyo today, we can get it tomorrow. We have nothing so far," he said.
"We were up 5-0 and wanted to keep that scoreline. But we fell back a bit too much and need to improve on that tomorrow."
India Mens vs minnows Russia
Mandeep Singh struck twice as a below-par India struggled past minnows Russia 4-2 in the first-leg of the two-match hockey Olympic Qualifier here on Friday.
Mandeep (24th, 53rd minutes) scored two field goals while Harmanpreet Singh (5th) and SV Sunil (48th) also hit the target for India.
It was an expected to be a 'David vs Goliath' contest going by the class and vast gap in world rankings between the two teams but world no. 22 Russia dished out a fighting effort to surprise the hosts and keep the difference of goals to just two.
World no.5 India still can't breath easy as Russia clearly showed they are capable of creating an upset in the second and final match on Saturday. The aggregate winner at the end of the two-match qualifier will seal its place for the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Hopefully, Indian hockey will revive its lost glory: Sports Minister
Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju on Friday exuded confidence that both the Indian men's and women's hockey teams will qualify for next year's Tokyo Games, thereby helping the eight-time Olympic champions to revive its lost glory in the sport.
"I have come here to cheer and encourage both the men's and women's hockey teams in their bid to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. Hopefully, India will revive its lost glory in hockey," Rijiju told reporters here on the sidelines of the opening day of two-leg Olympic Qualifiers here.
Rijiju, who watched the first-leg of Indian men's and women's teams Olympic Qualifiers against USA and Russia at the Kalinga Stadium here, said the government is committed to extending all possible support to the athletes in their endeavours to earn Olympic glory for the country.
He said the government is taking all necessary steps to ensure India's best-ever performance in next year's Tokyo Olympics.
"Predicting number of medals is difficult but we will give our best shot in terms of preparation and performance," he concluded.
