Tokyo: Vandana Kataria became the first Indian woman hockey player to score an Olympics hat-trick as India defeated South Africa 4-3 at the Oi Hockey Stadium on Saturday to sail into the quarterfinals at the Tokyo Olympics.
Besides, Katariya (4th, 17th, 49th), Neha Goyal (32nd) scored the other one for India. With Great Britain beating Ireland in the final Pool A encounter, India’s were granted passage into the knockouts as the fourth-placed side with six points from five games.
In the quarterfinals, India will have mighty Australian in front of them, who topped Pool B winning all their five matches so far. The other quarterfinals fixtures are the Netherlands versus New Zealand, Spain versus Great Britain and Argentina versus Germany.
Katariya broke the deadlock from a brilliant run from Navneet Kaur in the right and tapped the ball into the goal. India kept putting pressure on the South Africans and kept creating goal-scoring opportunities. Navneet made another fantastic run in the 11th minute, but couldn’t find the back of the net.
However, South Africa put some pressure on the Indians in the last few minutes of the first quarter and were equally rewarded after Taryn Mallett produced a long ground pass and Tarryn Glasby (15th) deflected the ball into the net.
India continued to put pressure on the South Africans and earned a PC in the second minute of the second quarter. Deep Grace Ekka carried out the drag-flick and deflected the ball brilliantly to help India take a 2-1 lead. Soon after, the South Africans made a circle penetration, but couldn’t find a way to score.
India got close to the goal once again in the last few minutes of the first half, but they couldn’t get past the South African goalkeeper. However, the Proteas equalised once again when captain Erin Hunter (30th) converted a PC. The Indians piled on more pressure on the opposition with Neha in the thick of the action.
Soon after, the Indians earned a PC and converted it into a goal through Neha. Marizen Marais (39th) made it 3-3. With the match greatly poised, Katariya completed her hat-trick 11 minutes from time and sealed the deal.
