Eight-star Deepika and trickster Ishika power India to 19-0 win over Uzbekistan in opener

Drag flick specialist Deepika Sehrawat hammered eight goals and Ishika Chaudhary struck a hat-trick as India began their hockey campaign in the women’s section with a bang. The Indian women brushed aside Uzbekistan by an impressive 19-0 scoreline in Pool B at the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium on Sunday.

Deepika Sehrawat (8′, 22′, 26′, 33′, 37′, 38′, 41′, 54′) scored eight goals for India while Ishika Chaudhary (11′, 42′, 54′) notched up a hat-trick.

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Lalremsiami Hmarzote (7′), Ishika (11′, 42′, 54′), Baljeet Kaur (12′), Neha (18′), Navneet Kaur (23′, 45′), Lalthantluangi (43′, 51′) and Sakshi Rana (43′) accounted for the other goals.

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World No. 8 India, bronze medallists from Hangzhou 2023, overran Uzbekistan, ranked 65th in the world, in the midfield from the opening hooter. It took the Indian team just six minutes to take the lead with Lalremsiami finally bundling the ball in after a host of missed opportunities.

Deepika unstoppable with PC conversions

Deepika doubled the advantage just a couple of minutes later as she found herself in space and slammed in her 40th international goal.

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Sunelita Toppo fed Ishika for the third while Baljeet Kaur, representing India for the 50th time in her career, added a fourth just before the first quarter ended.

Indian players congratulate Deepika Sehrawat who scored eight goals against Uzbekistan in the Asian Games opener. Pics: Hockey India

Savita Punia, playing her 320th international match to go level with Vandana Katariya as the most-capped Indian women’s hockey player, hardly had any involvement between the sticks.

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The Indians hammered in four more goals in the second quarter to enter half-time leading 8-0 with Deepika going on to complete her hat-trick. Deepika’s tally of eight included six penalty corner conversions.

India were relentless in the third half, doubling the lead to 16-0 in the period as Deepika was unstoppable. She scored exactly half of these.

The final quarter yielded three goals as India led the stats with an astonishing 66 circle penetrations and 62 per cent possession.

The Indian women’s hockey team will face Indonesia in their second Asian Games Pool B match on Monday. Hosts Japan, Thailand and Singapore are the other three teams in the group.

At Aichi-Nagoya 2026, the women’s hockey tournament doubles up as a qualifier for the LA 2028 Olympics, with the gold medal winner bagging a direct berth for the upcoming Summer Games.