India stun Australia to create history by entering maiden Olympic hockey semifinals

Tokyo, Aug 2: In a huge and proud moment for India, the women's hockey team created history on Monday here as they qualified for the semi-finals of the Olympics for the very first time after defeating Australia 1-0.

 

 

In what comes as a historic day and possibly the greatest moment for women's hockey in India, Gurjit Kaur scored the lone goal in the match during the first half through a penalty corner in a very tightly contested match.

 

 

The Indian defence looked to give it their all as they ensured Gurjit's effort didn't go in vain. The Australians came back strongly but the Indian women refused to give in to their attack even though the Aussies kept piling the pressure with each passing minute.

 

 

The first quarter started in great pace as both teams put their foot on the accelerator and the forwards from both teams came very close to finding the back of the net. But none succeeded in scoring after the first fifteen minutes.

 

The definition of wall has been redefined as Savita, the goalkeeper of India saved many goals in order to ensure that there will be no shoot outs or giving lead to the Aussies. They made sure they didn't let Hockeyroos spoil the dream of making it to the semi-final.

 

Earlier on Sunday, the Indian men's hockey team reached the last four of the Olympics for the first time in 41 years as the team defeated Great Britain 3-1. The last four berth had eluded the Indian men's hockey team since the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games where the team led by V Baskaran won the eighth Gold medal for India.