Jakarta: Four Indian players scored a hat-trick each as the women’s hockey team mauled lowly Kazakhstan 21-0 in their Pool B encounter to notch up their second consecutive win in the Asian Games here Tuesday.
However, they missed the all-time Games record by a goal when the Indian women defeated Hong Kong 22-0 in 1982 Asiad.
Drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur (eighth, 36th, 44th and 51st minutes), who also scored a hat-trick in the previous game against hosts Indonesia, led the scoring chart with Navneet Kaur (11th, 12th, 49th), Lalremsiami (ninth, 19th, 30th) and Vandana Katariya (29th, 37th, 53th) scoring thrice each.
Navjot Kaur (16th, 54th) and Odisha star Lilima Minz (38th, 44th) scored a brace each while Neha Goyal (10th), Udita (34th), another state player Deep Grace Ekka (43th) and Monika (55th) scored once each to record India’s second biggest victory in the Asiad.
Gurjit opened the floodgates for India as she sent a low and powerful shot to the Kazakhstan goalkeeper’s left. Lalremsiami made it 2-0 after she connected a pass from Lilima before Navneet struck again. India went 4-0 up through Navneet.
India made it 6-0 when Lalremsiami converted from a penalty corner. Just a minute before the end of the second period, India went 8-0 up through Vandana.
Lalremsiami added another one to complete her hat-trick at the stroke of half time to make the scoreline 9-0. However, India added another 12 goals in the next two quarters to overwhelm their opponents.