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Netizens hails Savita Punia for her brilliant performance as Indian Women’s Hockey Team Beats Australia to Qualify for the Semifinals- Read to know more about it.

The Indian Women’s Hockey Team stunned mighty Australians by 1-0 to reach the semifinals for the first time in Olympic Games. Drag Flicker Gurjit Kaur’s goal and goalkeeper Savita Punia’s brilliant performance helped India to beat the Aussies and qualify for the Semis.

Gurjit Kaur converted India’s Lone penalty corner in the 22nd minute to crush Australian hopes. Meanwhile, Goalkeeper Savita Punia managed to save all the nine-shot hit towards her by Australians and earned the tag of ‘new wall’ by the sports fans all across the world.

People across India are expressing gratitude to India’s vice-captain and Goalkeeper Savita Punia for her contribution to India’s victory at Olympics.

Check out the fans reactions-

Who is Savita Punia?

Savita Punia was born in Jodhkan village of Sirsa district in Haryana. She was sent to the district headquarters for better schooling. In her childhood days, she was encouraged by her grandfather Mahinder Singh to take up hockey and join the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Hisar. Although she was initially not at all interested in the game but later when her father spent money on her kitbag, she started to see the game in a new way and got passionate about it.

In 2007, Savita Punia was picked up for a maiden national camp in Lucknow where she used to train with the top Goalkeepers. Punia made her first international tour in 2009 for a four-nation event in Netherlands and Germany. She made her Senior International Debut in the year 2011.

In 2013, Punia participated in the Eight Women’s Asia Cup held in Malaysia in which she saved two crucial potential goals in the penalty shoot-out and paved the way for India to bag a bronze medal. Savita Punia was also part of the bronze-winning Indian team at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.

In the year 2016, Savita Punia performed brilliantly against Japan and helped the team to qualify for the Rio Olympics for the first time after 36 years. She continued her brilliance and astonishing performance in the Asia Cup 2018 and made a match deciding save against China in the final which made her earned the goalkeeper of the tournament award and booked a slot for the Indian team in the 2018 World Cup in London.For her contribution, Savita Punia has also been honoured with the Arjuna Award in 2018.

Meanwhile, NLC Congratulates the entire Indian Women’s Hockey Team for Qualifying for the Semifinal at the Tokyo Olympics.

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