As in-form local star helps hosts inflict another defeat On Korea
RANCHI: Playing for India for the first time in her home state, it seems Salima Tete can do no wrong.
Having already scored four goals in the group stage, the girl from Simdega district in Jharkhand once again lit up Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Astro Turf Hockey Stadium here on Saturday evening when she scored a blinder in India's 2-0 win against South Korea in the semifinal.
In the final of Women's Asian Champions Trophy on Sunday evening, India will now face off against defending champions Japan, who beat China 2-1 in the first semifinal of the day.
The game was into the 11th minute when Salima ran down the centre and played the ball to Vandana on the left. The senior-most player in the team passed it to Udita at the top of the D and she played it to Salima, who ran down through the Korean defence unopposed.
Udita's final pass couldn't have been much better and Salima on the run controlled the ball, had a couple of touches to take it away from the defenders and then played it into the net through the legs of goalkeeper Eunji Kim.
The pace at which it happened took South Korea by surprise and all they could do was be awed by the move.
But with players of the men's hockey team like PR Sreejesh, Manpreet Singh, Mandeep Singh and Jarmanpreet Singh in attendance, along with coach Craig Fulton, Salima wasn't done for the day. As the crowd cheered her on, she grabbed India's third PC of the match four minutes into the second quarter after a nice one-two with Navneet Kaur. This time Deep Grace Ekka took the hit and goalkeeper Jinmin Lee, who came in the second quarter, dived to the right in a bid to keep out the shot. However, Vaishnavi Vitthal Phalke, who made the insertion, was there to score off the rebound.
Vaishnavi, who was on the reserve list and replaced Sonika before the last-group match, had her back towards the goal but was still able to flick it into the net.
As for Salima, even though she didn't score any more goals and wasn't able to create any clear-cut chances, she did have the South Koreans on their toes every minute of the game and forced Su Ji Choi to make a hard tackle on her with just nine minutes left on the clock. It earned the South Korean player a yellow and gave India the advantage.
But to the dismay of coach Janneke Schopman, India failed to make use of it as Jyoti and Vandana were also shown yellow in the 53rd and 55th minutes respectively. As a result, when South Korea won their last PC of the match towards the very end, there were nine Indian players on the field against 11 South Koreans.
It's something that Schopman sounded worried about during the last match and hopefully, it won't come to haunt them in Sunday's final. The other cause of concern is the penalty corners. Although India won a total of six, they could convert only one.
While the Koreans did defend the PCs well, there was a mis-trap once again in the third quarter that shouldn't have happened. It was PC No. 5 for India but Monika failed to trap it after Salima's push and South Korea went on the counter.
Later, South Korea won a couple of PC's. While they failed to convert the first, Seungae Park's shot during the second attempt hit Nisha straight on the head and was worrying for a while. But to everyone's relief, she was unhurt and continued playing.
