India had to wait long for their second Women’s Asia Cup title with the last one coming way back in 2004

India edged past China 5-4 via shootout to win the women’s Asia Cup hockey title here on Sunday. With this, India also qualified for next year’s World Cup as Continental champion.

It was skipper Rani Rampal who scored the winning goal while Savita Punia made a great save in sudden death.

It was advantage China as a stick check in the circle saw India concede a penalty corner in only the second minute of the game. However, Savita padded it away and an alert Deep Grace cleared the ball.

A second penalty corner was again padded away by Savita. With the first quarter ending in a stalemate, India came back looking determined to find a breakthrough.

The forwards made several forays into the striking circle. India found the breakthrough in the 25th minute through Navjot Kaur.

Though China launched a counter attack, the Indian defenders were up to the task. The final quarter was tense as China won a penalty corner through a successful video referral in the 47th minute. Tiantian Luo kept low as she improvised to find the right corner of the post, scoring a sensational equaliser for China.

In the penalty shootout Rani scored twice, while Monica, Lilima Minz and Navjot scored once each.

Savita was adjudged Goalkeeper-of-the-Tournament while Monica won the Woman-of-the-Match award.

The result: Final: India 1 (Navjot Kaur) bt China 1 (Tiantian Luo) in shootout. Third place: Korea 1 (Hyejeong Shin) bt Japan 0.