Vandana Katariya, who scored three of India’s four goals against South Africa in the final pool A hockey game, became the first Indian woman to register a hat-trick at the Olympics at Oi Hockey Stadium — South Pitch on Saturday.
The 29-year-old forward’s three goals made sure that the women’s hockey team’s hopes to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics remain intact as it will now depend on the outcome of the Ireland and Great Britain game.
After a rough start at the Tokyo Olympics, the Indian women’s hockey team’s two crucial wins gave their fans a sigh of relief. However, India’s quarter-finals hopes are now dependent on the Ireland vs Great Britain match. India can go ahead in the tournament only if Ireland either lose or play out a draw against Great Britain.
“She shoots, she scores! Vandana Katariya scored 3 of #IND ‘s 4 goals in their match against #RSA to become the first Indian woman to register a hat-trick at the Olympics!” Tokyo 2020 for India tweeted.
In their five Group Stage matches, India won two and lost three.
In Saturday’s clash between India and South Africa, Indian team took the lead against the Africans in the initial part of the game. Vandana Katariya scored her first two goals in the starting two-quarters of the match and completed the hattrick by scoring the winner in fourth. Neha Goyal was the other scorer for India as the team edged South Africa 4-3 in a thriller.
The middle part of the game was like an oscillating pendulum as scores levelled time and gain. After the first quarter, Vandana Katariya had again put India in the lead following a penalty corner. She gave a stick deflection to Deep Ekka’s penalty corner drag-flick that took India for a 2-1 lead. Sooner, South African skipper Erin Hunter equalised it for South Africa.
