Hockey Women's Asia Cup 2022: When and where to watch Japan vs India match in India?

The Indian women's hockey team has started their glorious women's Asia cup 2022 journey under the leadership of Savita Punia.

The Indian women's hockey team has started their glorious women's Asia cup 2022 journey under the leadership of Savita Punia. The Indian women's team got off to a fantastic start by defeating Malaysia 9-0 with a one-sided triumph. Vandana Katariya (8′, 34′), Deep Grace Ekka (10′), Navneet Kaur (15′, 27′), Lalremsiami (38′), Monika (40′) and Sharmila (46′, 59′) guided their team to victory by scoring a lot of goals.

The team's first goal came in the eighth minute, thanks to India's Neha Goel and forward Vandana Katariya's hard work. Afterwards, Deep Grace Ekka made it 2-0, two minutes later with a quick shot. Throughout all of these, the defence of the team remained powerful. Meanwhile, India's third goal came from a composed Navneet, who beat the Malaysian defence and scored a wonderful goal. In the 27th minute, Navneet scored the Indian team's fourth goal, making the score 4-0. Following that, she was spotted performing exceptionally well in India's attacking force.

Read also: Hockey Women's Asia Cup 2022: Full fixtures and schedule

After a ten-minute half-time break, India continued to pour goals, scoring one after the other. In the 34th minute, Vandana Katariya scored to almost double India's lead to 5-0, while Lalresiami trimmed the deficit to 6-0 in the 38th minute. Monica's timing allowed her to score the 7th goal in the 40th minute, earning her the Player of the Match honour after the game. India maintained control of the ball throughout the game, and Sharmila, the team's towering striker, scored two goals in the 46th and 59th minutes to allow India an unassailable 9-0 lead.

Coach Janneke Schopman said, "We were excited to finally play a game. But We were a bit restless at the start, trying to find our pace. But after 5 minutes I think we started to play our own game with a lot of movement and good pressure. That resulted in good attacking opportunities and goals".

The upcoming challenge

In their second Pool A encounter, India will face defending Asian Games champions Japan. The two sides had previously met in 2019 during the Ready Steady Tokyo Hockey, a warm-up event for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. In both the rounds, India defeated Japan by 2-1.

In regards to the opponent, Schopman stated, "It should be a good game. Japan have also brought an experienced team so we are looking forward to playing them. It will be interesting to see if we can execute our gameplay using our strengths."

Indian women's hockey 18-member squad

• Goalkeepers: Savita Punia (captain), Rajani Etimarpu.
• Defenders: Deep Grace Ekka (vice-captain), Gurjit Kaur, Nikki Pradhan, Udita.
• Midfielders: Nisha, Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam, Monika, Neha, Salima Tete, Jyoti, Navjot Kaur.
• Forwards: Navneet Kaur, Lalremsiami, Vandana Katariya, Mariana Kujur, Sharmila Devi

When and where to watch

On the watch.hockey website, the tournament will be broadcasted live. All of the tournament's matches will be streamed exclusively on Disney+ Hotstar.