Confident India battle-ready for Chi in women's Asia Cup fil

It’s a sweet double that the Indian eves are aiming for and going by skipper Ritu Rani’s optimism, the girls are all set for an exciting finish.

“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 fil. We want to qualify for the World Cup next year by winning this tourment,” the skipper asserted.

Her confidence stems from the team’s stupendous form in the tourment as they have remained unbeaten with convincing victories in the Pool stage besides beating Kazakhstan in the quarter-fil and defending champions Japan in the semi-fil.

“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 said on winning 4-2 against hosts Japan in the semi-fil on Friday.

Though India notched up a formidable 4-1 win against World No.8 Chi in the Pool Stage, India are aware they need to bring their A-game to clinch the title.

During the Asian Champions Trophy last year, India had lost to Chi 2-3 in the Pool Stage but came back strongly in the Fil to beat them 2-1 in a crunch game.

“We know Chi 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 Sunday and focus will be on following the strategy made by our coaches,” the captain added.

With 27 goals in the tourment, India’s forwardline has been rather fierce creating pelty corners and finding spaces to pump goals.

Off the total goals scored, dragflicker Gurjit Kaur has eight goals to her me and is also the third highest goal scorer in the tourment so far. vjot Kaur and vneet Kaur have four goals each while Deep Grace and Rani have scored thrice.

Young gun Lalremsiami has scored twice while Neha Goyal, Sonika and Vanda Katariya have a goal each to their credit.

“I think it has been a collective team effort in the tourment so far and Gurjit has been excellent in all the matches. We want to come up with an overall performance tomorrow too,” she concluded.

The winner of the fil will directly qualify for the 2018 World Cup in England. IANS.