Indian women thrashed by Korea in dead rubber

Jincheon (Korea) (PTI): The series already in its pocket, Indian women's hockey team lost 0-4 to hosts South Korea in the inconsequential third and final match of the rubber here on Friday.

India had earlier registered back-to-back identical 2-1 wins over Korea in the first two games to pocket the series. India's defence was put under huge pressure right from the start as the hosts made successful forays into the striking circle.

The hosts created as many as five penalty corners in the match and converted one in the 29th minute. Jang Heesan opened the scoring for Korea followed by back-to-back goals in the 41st minute from Kim Hyunji and Kang Jina.

The three goals dented India's morale and any chances of a comeback into the match. Lee Yuri's goal in the 53rd minute further sealed the match in favour of the hosts.

"The learning process is always with ups and downs and today was one such experience where we had to deal with setbacks early on and could not recover. But this does not mean we won't learn from this experience," said India's chief coach Sjoerd Marijne.

"South Korea is a good team and today they were much better than us. But I am happy with our performances in the first two matches. And now we know what we must improve upon to be fully prepared for the FIH Women's Series Finals Hiroshima 2019," he added.