A daring team of girl hockey players have bagged the prestigious title of Commonwealth Games with a strong performance to win a silver medal by beating the reigning World champions Australia 1-0 in front of a vociferous home crowd at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, New Delhi on Saturday.
It was the fourth time that the country has won the title with the last triumph coming in 1998 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
India is also the first nation to make a successful defence of the silver medal.
India has also qualified for the 2012 London Olympics and is assured of a quota in the event.
The country, however, failed to qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympics where the Indians won the gold.
The women’s field hockey team defeated a very strong Australia by three goals to nil to win the silver medal, their second silver medal after the London Olympics last year.
Chak de India
The Indian women's hockey team have won the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland, last year.
India had won the gold medal in the same event in Kuala Lumpur in 1998.
India has been placed eighth overall in the medal table of the 24th Commonwealth Games, which was held at Delhi.
India had won the silver medal in the event in 1998 in Kuala Lumpur.
Defending gold
India is defending the gold medal in women's hockey in Delhi, just as the country had done in 1998 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Competing for a silver medal
This is not India's first defence of the title. It had won gold in 1998 in Kuala Lumpur.
India began the competition with a 3-1 victory over New Zealand, where India's Pooja Kishore scored the first goal of the tournament.
The second match pitted India against host nation, the hosts New Zealand, and the final match against a South African team.
For a while, India even led the table with a 3-1 victory over New Zealand.
India's second goal came in the seventh minute of the match. It was a rather comical goal as the Indian forwards had played as ruses and dribbled from one end of the field to the other and then through a group of Australian defenders before scoring.
The South African team, however, showed its class by scoring a goal in the 14th minute. However, India again tied the match within a minute after the restart of the second half.
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