India qualified for the final after beating Ireland in a penalty shootout

Skipper Savita Punia again produced an outstanding performance in goal as India beat Ireland 2-1 on penalties to set up their final FIH Hockey Women’s Nations Cup match against Spain in Valencia on Friday. The winners of this tournament will qualify for next season’s FIH Pro League series.

The two teams were locked at 1-1 in regulation time as India recovered through Udita’s 45th-minute penalty corner conversion to cancel out Naomi Carrol’s 13th-minute strike.

In the penalty shootout, India struck through Lalremsam and Sonika with their second and third attempts, while Ireland managed a solitary strike in the third through Hannah McLoughlin.

Savita stood tall under the bar to block Ellen Curran’s shot as the game went down the drain as Kathryn Mullan had to score Ireland’s last try to keep them alive. But Mullan fired wide as India won the second penalty shootout to reach the final.

The Indian women’s team had beaten New Zealand by the same margin in a penalty shoot-out to win the Commonwealth Games bronze medal earlier this year.

Ireland, a team ranked 13th below, drew first blood with a brilliant counter-attack down the right as Carrol took control of the ball before slotting it past Savita with a powerful strike.

Trailing by one goal at half-time, India were unable to create a single clear-cut chance, while their penalty shootout petered out with Gurjit Kaur and Navneet wasting chances. They had a golden opportunity to equalize in the second quarter when Deep Grace Ekka struck from close range after the ball took a deflection off Vandana Katariya but just ricocheted off the crossbar.

After missing several attempts, world number 8 India finally managed to score from the penalty spot. Udita hit a low shot just five seconds into the third quarter to tie the game and force a shootout.

Earlier in the day, Spain rode Sara Barrios’ 14th-minute field goal to defeat Japan 1-0 and seal their final berth.