Sangita Hits Hat-Trick As India Blank Singapore 13-0 In Asian Games Women's Hockey

Young striker Sangita Kumari slammed a hat-trick as a dominant Indian women's hockey team scored goals at will to thrash lowly Singapore 13-0 in its opening Pool A match at the Asian Games here on Wednesday. While the Indians pumped in as many as eight goals in the first two quarters, the Singaporeans did show some resistance after the halfway break as they conceded just five goals. Sangita (23rd, 47th, 56th) scored thrice, while Navneet Kaur found the net twice in the 14th minute. (Asian Games Medals Tally)

Udita (6th), Sushila Chanu (8th), Deepika (11th), Deep Grace Ekka (17th), Neha (19th), Salima Tete (35th), Monika (52nd) and Vandana Katariya (56th) were the other goal scorers.

India will take on Malaysia in their next pool match on Friday.

"It was a good performance, we are happy with the result. The young girls complemented the seniors well. It made our job easy," skipper Savita said after the match. "We are taking match-by-match here. Our next focus is on Malaysia, we have ode day gap in which we will prepare and study Malaysia's game. We will just focus on our plans.

"There is also Korea in our pool and they are a very good team but we will try to win and top the pool. Our mindset is right, everybody knows why they are here. Our target is to qualify (for Olympics) directly," she added.

The gulf between India and Singapore was evident as the Savita Punia-led side mounted attack after attack to score eight goals in the opening two quarters.

The Indians' relentless attacks resulted in a heap of penalty corners and they managed to convert five of them.

India took the lead in the sixth minute when Udita scored from a penalty corner with a slap shot. Two minutes later, they were awarded a penalty stroke and Sushila