Manheim, USA: In their third match of the tour, India beat Canada 5-2 to record a second victory in Pennsylvania today.
India started off the match aggressively, as they earned their first penalty corner early in the first quarter, but failed to connect that to the scorecard. But the aggression meant they were not behind in creating more chances, as Vandana Katariya pounced onto one such opportunity to keep the scorecard rolling through a field goal in the 9th minute.
Following this goal were a couple of blank shots by both the teams towards the goals, but there was no further disturbance in the first quarter as the two teams went for the first break with a score of 1-0 in favor of India.
Coming into the second quarter, Canada came trying for an inroad to the scoreboard, and were able to equalize in the 17th minute through a drag flick from Stephanie Norlander. Indian defense made sure that there were no further damage in the quarter, though they conceded some penalty corners, which they would have to learn to avoid for during the Rio 2016 Summer Games.
Both the teams came out strongly in the third half, trying to take the lead onto the scores, and then it was India to make the first shot at the goal as Deepika scored in the 38th minute to give Indian team a lead.
However, this lead couldn’t go far as Brienne Stairs scored in the 42nd minute to draw the score level. The third quarter was more or less without any further damage any side as all attempts from the two sides went off target. At the third break, the score stayed 2-2.
Coming off the break, in the final quarter, India’s vigor was seen as they fast paced their aggression and got the reward with a Deepika’s second goal in the 49th minute. Following it was Vandana, who scored to give India a 4-2 lead on the scorecard.
Trailing with two goals, Canada tried to hold the match again, but their attempts went in vain as India scored a fifth through Poonam Rani in the 58th minute to sum it all on the scoreboard which read 5-2 in the end.