Women's hockey Olympic qualifier: India thrash Canada 4-1

The Indian women's hockey team churned out a much improved performance on Sunday to beat Canada 4-1 in their second match of the 2012 London Olympics qualifiers at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium.

After a lacklusture opening day, team coach CR Kumar did some homework ahead of Sunday's game. Knowing the limitations of the team to score field goals, he wanted to rely on variation in penalty corners. And it paid rich dividends against Canada in the second match of the Olympic qualifier. After missing the eighth minute penalty corner, India found gaps via variation in the 15th minute and 27th minute penalty corners.

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In between, Rani Rampal managed to get some grace in her skills to weave past Canadian defenders to slot home team's second goal. Three goals in the first half gave some breathing space to Indian team in the second, which Canada found beyond its reach.

They moved upfront with renewed zeal, getting in another cracking shot to make it 4-0.

But the girls from across the Atlantic Ocean did make an impression in the dying moments of the match by reducing the margin.

The win, however, won't decrease the home team's burden of making inroads to the London games as South Africa, favourite to win the tournament, maintained a clean slate in their second encounter by defeating Ukraine 2-0.