The Indian hockey team played out a 1-1 draw against defending champions Japan in its final Super 4 stage match of the Women’s Asia Cup 2025 at the Gongshu Canal Sports Park Hockey Field in Hangzhou, the People’s Republic of China, on Saturday.
A win in the match would have guaranteed the Indian women’s hockey team’s entry into the final.
However, Selima Tete and Co. can still make Sunday’s summit clash as long as China beat the Republic of Korea or avoid a defeat by less than two goals in their Super 4 match later in the day.
In the match against Japan, India drew first blood as they scored early through Beauty Dung Dung (7’), whilst it was Shiho Kobayakawa (58’) who equalised for the Japanese team.
Navneet Kaur played her 200th international match for India on the day.
India had the better start in the early exchanges of the contest and threatened within the first few minutes itself, as Ishika Chaudhary hit the frame of the goal.
After that, Japan began to put together a few moves in attack but were quickly pushed back as India struck in the form of Beauty Dung Dung, who deflected Neha’s shot into the net to make it 1-0.
India continued to attack and earned the game’s first penalty corner in the final moments of the first quarter, which ended with the score at 1-0.
Japan came out in the second quarter looking for the equaliser and were on the front foot in the first few minutes. They won a penalty corner as well but India kept them out without much trouble.
As the contest progressed, the Indian women’s hockey team started to regain possession, and began building in attack. Japan’s defence though held on and then put the pressure on India in the final stages of the first half. However, India’s defence kept them at arm’s length and went into the break with the score at 1-0.
The third quarter saw India, ninth in the women’s hockey rankings, up the ante against world No. 12 Japan’s defence.
Lalremsiami was often at the heart of the attacking moves. However, the Japanese team held on and absorbed the pressure. At the break, India led 1-0.
The final quarter saw Japan stepping it up in attack as they looked for an equaliser. Midway through the quarter, India started to move back up the pitch and won a flurry of penalty corners to put the pressure back on their opponents.
In the final minutes, Japan scored through Shiho Kobayakawa to make it 1-1.
Eventually, both teams shared the spoils as they were locked at 1-1 when the hooter sounded.