While You Were Busy Watching Cricket, The Indian Women’s Hockey Team Secured A Place In The FIH Qualifier!

When there’s a cricket world cup going on, almost the entire country becomes a sports enthusiast, chanting and cheering for the sportsmen India has raised. And while the nation hails only the cricket prodigies, hooked on to every word they utter, other sports are made to feel like India’s step children. Of course, these also deserve attention and acclaim, we are performing in various sports, bringing home medals and accolades, only if the country would pay attention. Especially after the Indian women hockey team’s exemplary win against Japan.

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For those of you who aren’t in the know, and we fathom there would be many, the same time as India appears for the ICC World cup, India is also actively competing in the FIH Women’s Series Finals, being held in Japan, and has quite recently bagged itself a 3-1 win against the host country. And we are so proud.

The Indian team captain, Rani Rampal, secured a lead in the match early on, later backed up by two goals by the drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur, one in the very final penalty corner hit. Raising not only the bar for sports and women, but also putting India on the map in a global competition, the narrative that once was ‘women are not far behind’, has clearly changed itself into ‘women are far ahead’.

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The Indian women’s national field hockey team is ranked 9th in the FIH World Rankings, and with the win against Chile, it secured a place in the qualifiers, and now as the champions after going up against Japan. Rani Rampal, the caption, dedicated the win to the late father of teammate, Lalremsiami, who passed away on Friday. She commented, “One of our team mate Lalremsiami lost her father yesterday so this victory is dedicated to her father. Hope he rests in peace. She did really good and we are so proud of her. She was with the team and didn’t return home.”

When asked about how she feels about the victory, she said, “We are happy that we are in the final. This game is all about winning but still we can do much better.” And honestly, this is the kind of spirit we need to make a mark in the game. As for us, we do desperately wait and hope for the Indian team to slay as well as they have till now!