2017 Women's Hockey Asia Cup final: India beat China, qualify for 2018 World Cup

Kakamigahara (Japan): Indian women's hockey team clinched the Asia Cup title and qualified for the World Cup 2018 on Sunday. The Indian side had to beat China in the final to book a place at the London event and the Rani Rampal-led side achieved that feat by beating the Chinese side 5-4 in sudden death to clinch gold.

At the end of the normal time, the scores were tied at 1-1 as the match headed into sudden death where India managed to hold their nerve as win the final 5-4 at the Kakamigahara Kawasaki Stadium.

Two weeks after the Indian men's team lifted the Asia Cup beating Malaysia in the final, Indian women claimed the top honours.

At half-time, India were leading 1-0 after Navjot Kaur scored a goal at 25th minute to break the deadlock. However, China levelled the scored in the 47th minute after Tiantian Luo converted a penalty corner.

India had to wait long for their second Women's Asia Cup title with the last one coming way back in 2004, when they had beaten Japan in New Delhi for the trophy.

South Korea secured third place with a 1-0 win over Japan earlier in the day.

"We are extremely motivated after the men won the Asia Cup. Now it's our turn to win. The mood in the dressing room is upbeat. Everyone is excited and fully prepared for the Final. We want to qualify for the World Cup next year by winning this tournament," Rani had said after India defeated hosts Japan 4-2 in the semifinals.

Her confidence stems from the team's stupendous form in the tournament as they have remained unbeaten with convincing victories in the pool stage as well as the quarter final and semifinal against Kazakhstan and defending champions Japan respectively.

"The match against Japan was really good. Getting off to a good start was always the plan and every member of the team executed their specific role brilliantly. We played as per the strategies planned by our coaches and ensured there were minimal errors," Rani had said on winning 4-2 against hosts Japan in the semifinal on Friday.

Though India had notched up a formidable 4-1 win against world no.8 China in the pool stage, the Rani-led squad were aware that they needed to bring their A-game to clinch the title.

During the Asian Champions Trophy last year, India had lost to China 2-3 in the pool stage but came back strongly in the final to beat them 2-1 in a crunch game.

"We know China is a good team and can be quite unpredictable. We can't take them lightly simply because we have beaten them before. We have worked on our game plan for tomorrow and focus will be on following the strategy made by our coaches," skipper Rani asserted before the final showdown.

With 27 goals thus far in the tournament before the final, India's forward line had been rather fierce creating penalty corners and finding spaces to pump goals.

Off the total goals scored, drag flicker Gurjit Kaur had eight goals to her name and was also the third highest goal scorer in the tournament.

Navjot Kaur and Navneet Kaur had four goals each while Deep Grace and Rani had scored thrice during India's road to the final. Young gun Lalremsiami had scored twice while Neha Goyal, Sonika and Vandana Katariya had a goal each to their credit.