Hockey Test series: India thrash Azerbaijan 3-0

Indian eves on Wednesday registered a 3-0 victory over a hapless Azerbaijan in the third match to keep their slate clean in the four-Test hockey series at the Major Dhyan Chand National stadium, in New Delhi, on Wednesday.

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Leading 2-0, India played a slow-paced game but it was still enough to thwart the Azerbaijan challenge and take a 3-0 lead, with just one match to go.

India created a lot of opportunities in both the halves and scored through Sushila Chanu (3rd minute), Anuradha Devi (22nd) and Ritu Rani (67th).

Anuradha made up for the lapses and found the cage after Vandana Kataria's reverse hit rebounded off in the late moments of the first half put India 2-0 up.

Three minutes from the hooter, India put the final nail in their rival's coffin when Ritu dribbled past a couple of Azerbaijan players and slammed one to the left of the post from closed range.

India coach C R Kumar was satisfied with the three field goals but rued the number of unforced errors which his wards committed in the field.

"Our focus was on field goals and we scored three of them, so I am happy with it. But we are committing too many unforced errors on the field and we have to rectify these problems," Kumar said.

"We have not been able to convert the penalty corners. They are covering the goal post and we had to try out new variations. A couple of players are also batting fitness issues, Jaspreet is not fit to play and Rani Rampaul too is injured, so that is a problem," he added.