Harpal Singh Bedi

New  Delhi: Striker Lalremsiami and Navneet Kaur scored goal in each half  to enable India  pip spirited Korea 2-1 in the opening Women’s hockey match of  the three-match Bi-lateral Series at Jincheon (Korea) on Monday.

As per the information received here, the Visitors started the game on an attacking note forcing the hosts to be on the defensive.

India missed a chance to take the lead when they missed out on an opportunity to score through a penalty corner early in the first quarter. However young striker Lalremsiami put the visitors ahead with a splendid field goal in the 20th minute.

Indian team, backed by good results in their previous  tournaments in Spain and Malaysia earlier this year, exhibited  fast paced game throughout

The visitors second goal came in the 40th minute when Navneet Kaur struck beautifully that took India’s lead to 2-0.

Though the hosts earned five penalty corners in the course of the match, including a penalty stroke in the last quarter, they managed to convert only one PC in 48th minute through Shin Hyejeong.

India’s experienced goalkeeper Savita made some commendable saves to keep her team in lead throughout the match.

Speaking about their performance today, India’s Chief Coach Sjoerd Marijne said: “Considering this was our first match, I think the result was good but the performance can be better. We tried some new things in the match and it was interesting to see how we handled the change.”

India will play their second match against the hosts on Wednesday, 22 May.

For the upcoming match, Marijne feels the team must up their technical skills. He said, “We must bring our technical skills to a higher level in order to play faster and that will be one of our priorities for the next match.”