Indian women's hockey team on Saturday lost the shoot-out battle against Japan after the scoreline of the closely fought semi-final remained 2-2 till regulation time in the 7th Junior Asia Cup.
After a neck-to-neck encounter with goals by Deep Grace Ekka and Renuka Yadav, Indian eves were done in during the penalty shoot-out, which remained 3-2 in favour of Japan.
The first half started with India's surprise attack on Japanese side and very soon they earned a penalty corner. Deep Grace Ekka received the shot and hit hard into the goal-box to score the first goal of the match in the 4th minute. With the early 1-0 lead, Indian eves managed to put pressure on their opponents and played most of their game in the Japanese half.Both the teams post that were seen to take one up in the game but failed to materialise on the opportunities. With the game tied at 2-2 at the end of regulation time the match entered the shoot out phase.
During the Shoot-Out, Japan junior team converted three shoot-outs and Indian team managed to convert only two. Navjot Kaur and Preeti Dubey successfully converted the opportunities whereas Navneet Kaur, Deep Grace and skipper Rani failed to score and eventually lost the match by 2-2 (2-3 SO).