9 hours Ago By Aaditya Narayan
India face Thailand in their third match of the women's Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament in Rajgir, Bihar on Thursday evening. Harendra Singh's team have two wins from their opening two games, having beaten Malaysia 4-0 and then South Korea 3-2 in their opening two matches. While those were teams India were expected to beat, there were still shortcomings in their performances that they will need to work on before the tougher tests against Japan and China in the last two matches of the league phase, from which the top two teams will qualify for the final.
Forward Sangita Kumari has been a standout player for India so far, having scored three goals in the two games so far. Deepika also scored a brace against Korea, but she hasn't yet found her range from penalty corners, with her dragflick technique letting her down so far. Thailand began their tournament with a massive 15-0 loss to China in their opening game.
However, they bounced back nicely to take a point off Japan with a 1-1 draw in their second match on Tuesday. Thailand are the lowest-ranked team in the competition this year, ranked 29th in the world, 20 places behind India. Harendra and his team will have seen their result against Japan and won't take them lightly, but it is a match that India would still expect to win.
Harendra has looked to set up India in an attacking manner in the first two games, and that is likely to continue for this game as well. He will be looking for better combinations between his attacking players, particularly the experienced Navneet Kaur, who hasn't quite been at her best so far. As it stands before the start of this one, India are clearly favourites, but they will be looking for improvements to their attacking play and their efficiency from penalty corners.
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