FIH Hockey Pro League: Indian women beat USA 4-2 in the first leg

Within the regulation time, Ekka Deep Grace in the 30th minute, Navneet Kaur in the 31st minute, Sonika in the 39th minute, and Vandana Katariya in the 49th minute were the goal scorers for India. In contrast, Danielle Grega in the 27th minute and Natalie Konerth in the 45th minute scored for the United States.

It was a well-balanced first half, with both the squads struggling to open the scoring. Gurjit Kaur took attempts from three penalty corners while Shamila came close to deflecting the ball into the American but was denied by the strong-willed Americans. However, the United States opened the scoring despite India's efforts. Danielle Grega slotted the ball into the net past the Indian goalkeeper Savita after receiving a pass from Erin Matson.

India came back into the second half with renewed vigour and motivation as Ekka Deep Grace fired the ball from a penalty corner to level the score just seconds into the second half. The India squad built on the momentum as Navneet Kaur added another one minute later, followed by a third by Sonika in the 39th minute. The United States launched a counterattack and was given a penalty corner with seconds left in the third quarter. Natalie Konerth took the shot and made no mistake to make it 3-2.

Both squads went into the fourth quarter with a clear intent to attack. Katariya Vandana received a long pass from the Indian defensive line and fired a powerful shot past Jennifer Rizzo, securing a 4-2 victory for India.

In a post-match interview, Navneet Kaur said, "We struggled in the first half, but we came back in the second half. We were working under pressure in the first half. But in the second half, we coped with the pressure, and once we started scoring, we got better."

Netherlands women seal second place with a hard-fought win over China.

In the other match, the Netherlands won against China 2-1 in the first leg of the FIH Pro League match at HC Rotterdam, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, on June 21.

Within the regulation time, Laurien Leurink in the 28th minute and Maria Verschoor in the 51st minute were the goalscorers for the Netherlands, while Yang Chen in the 31st minute was the lone goal scorer for China.

The Netherlands had several opportunities to open the scoring but failed due to their sub-par finishing and the superb intuition of the Chinese goalkeeper Ping Liu. However, they persisted and finally got a breakthrough with just two minutes left in the first half, as Laurien Leurink made a run into the Chinese circle and slotted the ball into the net to give a 1-0 lead to the home side. 

China started the second half aggressively and went on the offensive as soon as the break ended. The Chinese squad showed some excellent passing moves to send the ball to Chen Yang, who fired the ball past the Dutch goalkeeper Josine Koning to equalize the score.

In the final quarter, Maria Verschoor slipped the ball into the Chinese net with a well-placed pass from Frederique Malta, securing a 2-1 victory for the Dutch side. The victory helped the Netherlands secure a second spot finish at the FIH Pro League, eight points ahead of India.

In a post-match interview, Player of the Match Xan de Waard said, "It was weird playing our former coach. Today we were the better team. We had a lot of chances in the circle. We needed patience in attack, and we were unlucky to concede a goal because they only had one shot on goal. Today we got our connections right with some long balls to out forwards, so that was good."