Russia humble Kazakhstan 9-0 to secure fifth spot

New Delhi, March 15, 2015: Claiming fifth spot in the Hero FIH Hockey World League Round 2 (Women), Russia thumped Kazakhstan 9-0 at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium today. Ksenia Shamina scored four goals and helped her team to register a dominating victory against the opponents.

Both the teams made a brilliant start to the game, making use of the pace and deception of their talented players.  The two teams made full attempts to open their account and with just two minutes left for the quarter to end, Russia’s Ksenia Shamina surged ahead and pierced the defence of Kazakhstan netting a goal in the thirteenth minute with a field effort. As all the efforts of Kazakhstan went in vain and the score board read 1-0 with Russia leading from the front.

Moving to the second quarter of the game, Russia was seen enjoying the best spell of the game as they stood successful in breaching the defence of Kazakhstan. With just two minutes into the quarter, Daria Vasileva made no mistake and beautifully converted a penalty corner by smacking the ball straight into the net in the 17th minute and doubled their lead to 2-0. Without any further delay, Marina Fedorova closed all the gaps and pushed the ball towards the crossbar yielding third goal for her team in the 21st minute of the game. Russian girls were seen in high spirits giving no points to the opponents to score. By the virtue of a penalty corner, Kristina Shumilina with her well sketched move touched the goal post and struck a field goal in the 24th minute. With Kazakhstan making a dry run for themselves , Russian girls escalated their score to 0-4 in the second quarter.

With the change of the ends, both the teams stepped on the field with better strategies and managed to keep the ball in their control. Russia’s Ksenia Shamina with her brilliant stick work struck the ball into the wide- open net and secured two consecutive field goals in the 41st and the 43rd minute. After receiving six jolts, Kazakhstan tried to get into the game but was unable to open their account as Russia’s defence stood tall advancing the scores to 6-0 by the end of the third quarter.

Russia continued to attack the opponent’s D and garnered two back-to- back field goals which came through the stick of Kristina Shumilina and Daria Vasileva in the 55th minute and took the scores to 8-0. It was Ksenia Shamina who yet again scored a beautifully crafted winning goal in the 56th minute in favour of Russia thus, marking a well- deserved win against Kazakhstan 9-0 to claim fifth position in the tournament.

Post losing the match against Russia and claiming the sixth spot, Kazakhstan’s Gulnara Imangaliyeva said, “There was no spirit or synchronization in the game today and all areas went wrong. We must train harder for stronger fitness and become a better team for the future. We will have to work on our consistency and power.”

Excited on claiming the fifth spot, Russian Coach Oleg Potapov said,“We played our best game today and our players showed their real mettle in the match. On a lighter note, we started playing better when the tournament is ending. We implemented our strategies well and managed to dominate the whole match. The tournament went well for our team and now we are looking forward to the European Championship in July.”

HI Press release