The world no. 9 women’s side also entered the history books with a phenomenally gritty performance.Coming into the match, the odds were totally against India as in world no.2 Australia, a mighty unbeaten opponent, awaited them in the last four round.
The victory came a day after the men’s hockey team qualified for the semi-final match.
India’s women team finished their Pool A proceedings in the fourth place with six points, riding on back-to-back wins over Ireland and South Africa. The top four teams from each pool made it to the knockout stage.
The Indian women’s hockey team scripted history on Monday by qualifying for the Olympic Games semifinals for the first time, beating three-time champions Australia
The Indian women hockey team’s best finish at the Olympics came on debut in Moscow back in 1980 when it ended up at the fourth position among six teams.
In that edition, only six teams participated out of which India finished fourth in a round-robin format competition with no classification or elimination matches.
After losing their first three matches against Netherlands, Germany and defending champions Great Britain, the Indian women made a brilliant comeback, defeating higher-ranked Ireland 1-0 and overpowering South Africa 4-3 to keep themselves in the hunt.
The Rani-led forward line has been impressive throughout the the pool stages but the likes of Sharmila Devi, Lalremsiami and Rani herself have squandered many chances.
The Indians have also been below-par with penalty corner conversions so far with star drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur looking a pale shadow of herself.
The team secured 33 penalty corners so far from five pool matches out of which it managed to utilise just four chances with all the goals coming through variations.
