Olympics 2021: Indian women's hockey team scripts history, advances to first-ever quarter-final

The Indian women's hockey team in Tokyo has scripted history by becoming the first side from the nation to make it to the quarterfinals of the Olympic Games.

The Indians finished fourth back in Moscow 1980, a competition that did not involve a knock-out game. They failed to qualify for subsequent editions of the Games until Rio in 2016, when they ended up last after losing all their group matches.

The Indians began their 2021 Olympic campaign with a 5-1 defeat against the Netherlands and failed to pick up points against Germany and Great Britain as well.

Sjoerd Marijne’s team came to life against old rivals Ireland, eking out a 1-0 win. The Indians Eves then beat South Africa by a 4-3 margin in a hard-fought encounter but still needed Great Britain to beat Ireland to clear their quarterfinal path.

Britain defeated Ireland 2-0 in their last Group A encounter thanks to goals by Susannah Townsend and Hannah Martin.

India to face Australia in quarterfinals of Tokyo Olympics

As a result of Britain’s 2-0 win against the Irish, the Indians have now made it to the quarterfinals, where they will meet Australia.

Rani Rampal and co. very nearly got the better of the Australians in the semi-finals of the Commonwealth Games in 2018, but went down 1-0 thanks to a controversial Grace Stewart goal.

The Indian Eves will play the Hockeyroos in the last of the quarterfinal matches on Monday, August 2.

The Indians had earlier made history by making it to the quarterfinals of the 2018 Women's World Cup and also by becoming Asia's top-ranked team.

India are the only Asian team to have made it to the quarterfinals of the 2021 Olympics, with both China and Japan failing to progress past the pool stages in Group B.