New Delhi: The Indian women’s hockey team produced a historic performance at the FIH Women’s Hockey World Cup 2026, defeating South Africa 6-1 in their second Pool D match in Amstelveen on Tuesday. The emphatic victory gave India their first win of the tournament.
India dominated the contest from the opening exchanges and maintained relentless pressure on the South African defence. Sunelita Toppo opened the scoring before Navneet Kaur, Sushila Chanu, Deepika, Lalremsiami and Sakashi Rani also found the net.
The six goals came from six different Indian players, highlighting the team’s attacking depth and ability to create scoring opportunities from multiple areas of the pitch.
South Africa struggled to match India’s intensity and spent long periods defending inside their own half. Kayla de Waal eventually scored South Africa’s only goal in the fourth quarter, but the strike came too late to change the outcome.
The victory was especially significant after India began their campaign with a 2-2 draw against China, the Olympic silver medallists. The result gave the Indian team a major boost as they look to progress deeper into the tournament.
India’s next challenge will be England. The team will enter the match with considerable confidence after producing one of the most dominant performances in their World Cup campaign.
The 6-1 triumph also marked India’s biggest victory in Women’s Hockey World Cup history, underlining the significance of their performance in Amstelveen. With six different players finding the net, India displayed both attacking quality and impressive squad depth as they continued their pursuit of a historic World Cup campaign.
