Hockey Junior Women's WC: India stun Germany 2-1 to seal quarterfinal berth

FIH Junior World Cup on Sunday. India, who thrashed a lowly Wales 5-1 in its opening Pool D match on Saturday, scored through two penalty corner conversions by Lalremsiami (2nd minute) and Mumtaz Khan (25th) to emerge winners. Germany's lone goal was scored by Jule Bleuel in the 57th minute.

The Indian will finish off their pool engagements against Malaysia on April 5 before the quarterfinal round which starts on April 8. The Indians are currently atop Pool D with two wins from as many games ahead of second-placed Germany. Two teams each from pools will qualify for the knock-out rounds. Against Germany, the Indians took the lead as early as in the second minute when Lalremsiami scored from a rebound after Deepika's drag flick from a penalty corner was saved by German goalkeeper Mali Wichmann. Thereafter, Germany proceedings and earned a handful of penalty corners by putting relentless pressure on the Indian defence, which stood firm.

India goalkeeper Bichu Devi Karibam had an excellent match as she not only denied the Germans from penalty corners on a number of occasions but also pulled off a brilliant save to keep out a penalty stroke by Jette Fleschutz in the second quarter. The Indians mostly relied on counter attacks and from one such move secured back-to-back penalty corners, the second of which was deflected in by Mumtaz in the 25th minute. The Germans were the attacking side for a major part of the first half but have been wasteful in converting penalty corners as they wasted as many as six set pieces. The Indians, on other hand, scored from two of the three penalty corners they managed in the first two quarters. Down by two goals, the Germans continued to attack after the change of ends but as has been the case