FIH Women's Hockey World Cup: India ends campaign with 3-1 consolation win over Japan

Despite an early surge from the Japanese squad, India found their rhythm to positively end their World Cup campaign. Within the regulation time, Navneet Kaur in the 29th and 44th minutes and Ekka Deep Grace in the 37th minute were the goalscorers for India. In contrast, In the 19th minute, Asai Yu was the lone goalscorer for Japan.

Japan started the match with an excellent display of neat passing and creative game-making. They made several runs into the Indian circle and got a breakthrough five minutes into the second quarter as Asai Yu slotted the ball into the net to give Japan a 0-1 lead.

Navneet Kaur and Nisha peppered the Japanese circle with back to back to back attacks to build pressure on the disciplined Japanese defence. Indian got a penalty corner with four minutes left before half-time, but Gurjit Kaur failed to capitalise on the opportunity with her shot. The efforts of Monika and Navneet Kaur earned India another penalty corner. However, Suzuki Miyu and Oikawa Shihori held firm to deny an equaliser to the Indian side.

India finally got an equaliser thanks to Jyoti's quality build-up in the final minutes of the first half. Navneet Kaur fired the ball past Japanese goalkeeper Nakamura Eika after receiving a pass from Nisha to level the score. The goal gave the Indian side the much-needed motivation; that they required to get into the flow. 

Ekka Deep Grace slotted the ball into the Japanese net with a powerful penalty corner flick to give India a lead. Navneet added another just seven minutes later to make it 3-1, securing the victory for India.

In a post-match interview, Neha said, "At the start of the match, we rushed and hurried, but by the end, we had found our way and played well."