Unbeaten India will fancy its chances against Japan in the semifinals

: Reaching the semifinal unbeaten through their league matches, the Indian women’s team would fancy its chances to go all the way when it takes on Japan in the semifinal of the Asian Champions Trophy at the Rajgir Sports Complex here on Tuesday.

India won 3-0 in its last league game against the same opponent and as the most experienced side in the competition, the defending champion is expected to retain the title. The Indian team has also gotten progressively better in every match but both the players and the coach would be aware that the knockout stage is a different ball game.

Going by the performances so far, however, India should have little cause for worry. The Indian forward line has been in imperious form, scoring 26 goals with a massive 155 circle entries. More importantly, 14 of them have been in open play with the likes of Sangita Kumari and Navneet Kaur being among the scorers. Deepika has shone in both open play and PCs, sitting pretty at the top of the scorers’ list with 10 goals.

The defence has been equally impressive and with coach Harendra Singh insistent that the team’s first priority was to not concede, keeping a clean sheet in four of the five games can clearly be considered an achievement. At the same time, it has also meant that both the Indian goalkeepers – Savita and Bichhu Devi – have had little to do in the games so far with the defence of Jyoti, Udita and Ishika Chaudhary effectively keeping the opposition at bay.

“All teams come with their own plans and we will face some resistance from Japan for sure, they are a formidable side. But we have to do our homework, we have to figure out where we can create more chances. This is all part of the process to create a new style of play and improve our decision making with a long term view,” Harendra said.

“What we do as a team in terms of planning and preparation is of course there but the players also have to figure out and work on what they want to do individually. The team is a collection of individuals and individual skill is equally important so we will test that,” he added.

Japan, meanwhile, tested India enough in the first half of their league match for the Indian team to not get complacent. The defence was airtight for the longest period and in Miyu Hasegawa – one of their two players who were at the Paris Olympics – they have an experienced and able scorer. The other semifinal will see Malaysia take on Olympic silver medalist China for a spot in the final while Korea and Thailand will battle it out to avoid the wooden spoon.