Tokyo Olympics: Indian women's hockey team's dream run ends as they lose to Great Britain

Indian women's hockey team lost to Great Britain in the bronze medal match at Tokyo Olympics 2020 on Friday (August 6). India's dreams of winning a historic medal in women's hockey at the Games were shattered after Great Britain pulled off a 4-3 win over gritty India. The Indian women had already created history and surpassed all expectations by entering the semifinals of the Games for the first time.

India's best performance in the Olympics before this was a fourth-place finish in the 1980 Moscow Games but there were no semifinals in that edition as only six teams compete in a round-robin format and the top two featured in the final. The first quarter remained goalless. The Great Britain team was pressing hard but they failed to convert several chances. The Indian goalkeeper Savita Punia displayed stood like a wall.

In the second quarter, Great Britain took a 1-0 lead when Ellie Rayer found an opportunity her attempted cross was put into the goal by India's Deep Grace Ekka. GB's Sarah Robertson scored again by smashing a diving backhand strike in off the left post. They got a two-goal advantage. India got their first penalty corner soon but wasted it. A minute later, India got two back-to-back penalty corners and Gurjit converted the second chance to reduce the margin.

India then went to score again as Vandana found a gap between Hinch and her near post to put her team into the lead. The Q2 ended with a scoreline of 3-2 in favor of India. India had one more chance in the form of a penalty corner in the last eight minutes but Great Britain defended stoutly to deny Gurjit a hat-trick. Thereafter, Great Britain did just enough to keep India at bay and to ensure a finish on the podium.