When the Indian ladies’s hockey staff registered good leads to tournaments over the previous couple of years, Navneet Kaur invariably could be the heartbeat of the staff’s attacking performs. Because the Rani Rampal period slowly wound down after the Tokyo Olympics, Navneet – who additionally hails from Shahbad’s well-known hockey nursery like the previous captain – emerged as certainly one of India’s most dear attacking shops.
Now the vice-captain and one of many senior members of the Indian ladies’s hockey staff in a brand new Olympic cycle, Navneet has to shoulder rather more of the attacking burden on the pitch. On Sunday in Rajgir on the Asian Champions Trophy, she stepped as much as do exactly that within the third quarter when India have been being thwarted by a resolute Japanese defence. With the match tied at 0-0, Navneet produced a wonderful end for the breakthrough objective, earlier than Deepika added two extra within the fourth quarter.
India’s 3-0 win ensured that the hosts and defending champions completed first within the pool stage and can face Japan once more within the semifinals on Tuesday.
Deepika – main the goalscoring chart with 10 strikes – appears to have hit the stride on this event now, and scored two extra well-taken drag flick objectives. India’s remaining penalty conversion on the evening was 2 out of 9, however to contextualise that, Japanese goalkeeper Yu Kudo was in impressed kind, saving from PC conditions when India appeared sure to open the scoring.
Navneet steps up
It was an evening with the stakes not likely excessive for both facet. India simply needed to keep away from defeat to make sure they completed first. Japan’s qualification to the semifinals was already confirmed earlier than the match with Korea shedding in opposition to China. The real looking ambition for Japan would have been to battle for a draw maybe and sneak into third place and keep away from a semifinal in opposition to India. However China isn’t precisely a better opposition anyway. So given all this context, the beginning of the match was understandably cagey.
India, particularly after a extremely intense match in opposition to China 24 hours earlier, didn’t hit their high gear within the first half. Japan didn’t provide a lot when it comes to attacking menace – they didn’t have a circle entry till halfway by the second quarter. Including to India’s frustrations was Kudo’s brilliance within the first two quarters. At one level, she made a triple save from one Penalty Nook routine for India with Navneet, Sushila Chanu (who was beginning to have a good time with the ball practically sneaking by) and Sangita Kumari all thwarted within the area of 10 seconds.
However as soon as once more on this event, India hit a greater tempo proper out of the half-time break. The passes bought faster, the assaults grew extra direct and on the heart of it usually was Navneet. Moments earlier than breaking the impasse, she supplied a reminder of why her childhood coach in Shahbad, Baldev Singh, regards her as among the finest within the enterprise in terms of dribbling and dodging defenders. She drove by the center of Japan’s defence to attract a foul. And when Lalremsiami took the free hit, she handed the ball behind to Navneet, who made a semi-circular run into the circle and unleashed a robust tomahawk – the backhand strike whistled previous the beforehand impenetrable Japanese defence with Kudo lastly overwhelmed.
Navneet’s event, till tonight, was one thing of a blended bag. There’s by no means a scarcity of artistic passing and dribbling when she is on the turf, however she wasn’t at all times capable of finding the proper connections. Typically she mishit pictures on objective, generally her efforts have been blocked off, and her low hits from PCs weren’t understanding. However she discovered a superb steadiness between chance-creation and chance-conversion in opposition to Japan, scoring probably the most essential objective on the evening that every one however ended Japan’s resistance. Fittingly, she was named participant of the match.
It was after the ACT match in opposition to Japan final 12 months in Ranchi – the place Navneet had scored the opener once more – when former coach Janneke Schopman appreciated how she was a feeder for the strikers forward of her however added that generally she’s so good at dribbling and stick-control that she has the tendency to carry on the ball too lengthy. Below Harendra, Navneet appears to have the liberty to be a roaming attacker increased up the pitch and it might – in the end of time – assist her rating extra too, slightly than simply being a feeder.