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India beat Japan 4-0 to win Women's Asian Champions Trophy

Indian women's hockey team. Adimazes

India beat Japan 4-0 to win the Jharkhand Women's Asian Champions Trophy, with goals from Sangita Kumari, Neha Goyal, Lalremsiami and Vandana Katariya.

It was India's second Asian Champions Trophy title, with the first one coming in 2016, and the team's second silverware under head coach Janneke Schopman after the FIH Nations Cup victory.

It was a final that took a while to come to life, and that is even after accounting for the hour's delay at the start. In the first quarter, which was low on quality and clearcut chances, neither India nor Japan had complete control over their skills, thereby either were not able to exert control on the game either.

However, as she has done throughout this tournament in her home state, Sangita Kumari provided the moment of inspiration for India early in the second quarter, with a superb finish over the Japanese goalkeeper, after being played through on the right flank by Neha.

That allowed India a foothold in the game, but Japan held their shape really well in defence, and eventually the game turned into a scrap heading into half-time and through the third quarter as well.

India also had some defending to do towards the end of that quarter, as Japan forced a string of penalty corners, against which the Indian defence and goalkeeper Savita Punia held firm.

However, India asserted their dominance in the fourth quarter, to leave the capacity Ranchi crowd with fabulous memories right at the end of the tournament. Neha, who had a stupendous game, doubled the lead with a deflection after a cleverly worked penalty corner routine saw a slap towards her from Deep Grace Ekka.

With the game still at 2-0, Japan had a chance to half the deficit after they won a penalty stroke, but Savita saved it with an outstretched left boot, the Indian players' reactions to which confirmed that they were confident of getting over the line after that.

Then India scored off another penalty corner as well, as Lalremsiami's looping shot off a rebound went over the Japanese defender on the line. Lalremsiami then set up Vandana's fourth after more excellent work from Neha, as India's most experienced player put the exclamation mark on a fantastic tournament and a fantastic week for Schopman's team.

The disappointment of Hangzhou will still linger, but in a competition that India would've seen as a tune-up event for the Olympic qualifiers in a couple of months, India have done everything they set out to do.

Seven games. Seven wins. 27 goals scored. 3 goals conceded. And to top it all off, they take silverware home.

You can relive the action as it happened in our live blog below.

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