Five wins out of five.
A perfect record for the Indian women's hockey team as they ended the Asian Champions Trophy group stage with a 3-0 win over Japan in Rajgir, Bihar on Sunday.
Navneet Kaur broke the deadlock in the 37th minute with a superb strike while Deepika took her overall scoring tally to 10 with back-to-back penalty corner goals in the final quarter. India will once again play Japan on Tuesday for a place in the final.
The match started on an expected not with India dominating the possession and being the aggressive side in the first quarter. Despite being good on the ball, they failed to score past their opponents.
Japanese goalkeeper Yu Kudo deserves a lot of credit for keeping the scoreline 0-0 as she kept pulling off saves. In the second quarter, Kudo came up with three back-to-back saves to stop India from taking a lead.
Like they did against China, India turned the game around after the half-time break. After winning a free hit just outside the circle, Navneet collected the ball from Lalremsiami, entered the circle and produced a solid reverse hit to beat Kudo as India took a deserving lead in the match.
In the final quarter, India earned a few penalty corners and despite missing the chances, Deepika managed to score twice in the 47th and 48th minute. Both her dragflicks had power behind the ball as Japan's hopes were crushed with quickfire goals.
In the other semifinal on Tuesday, China, who finished second on the table, will take on Malaysia finished third ahead of Japan. The fifth and sixth place playoff will take place between South Korea and Thailand.
You can relive the match on our live blog, below: