Tokyo Olympics: India women battle Argentina in hockey semis

After a stunning victory over Australia women in the quarterfinal, the India women’s hockey team would aim to script history when they take on Argentina in the semi-final of the ongoing Tokyo Olympics. The Indian eves showed great grit against the mighty Australians and marched in the top 4 with a 1-0 win. Drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur rose to the occasion and converted India's lone penalty corner in the 22nd minute. This was India’s best performance in the Olympics. Earlier, India women had finished fourth in the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

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Coming this Wednesday, the India women will be aiming to better the performance of their male counterparts by reaching their first-ever finals. The men’s hockey team were humbled 2-5 by Belgium in the semi-finals. The win over Australia took India women to no 7 in the rankings. However, getting past over the World no 2 Argentina is no joke. The Indian defence, led by goalkeeper Savita, had a brilliant outing against Australia and the likes Gurjit, Deep Grace Ekka, Monika and Udita will have to step up to the occasion once again.

Argentina has won two silvers in the 2000 Sydney and 2012 London Games but gold has eluded them. They would want to leave no stone unturned to get their hands on the yellow medal this time around. However, with three back to back wins, the momentum is in India’s favour.

Ahead of the Olympics, India women travelled to Argentina and played three games against the senior side, losing two and securing a draw in one.

"We made history by just reaching the semifinals and now we are looking forward to the semifinals, because we don't want to just finish here," Rani had said. "In this tournament there's two more games left for winning medals," she said.