FULL TIME That’s all for today; good day, good hockey
FULL TIME Full marks, of course, to forward Rutaja Pisal, who had both goals for Odisha. But you have to reserve special plaudits for goalkeeper Jocelyn Bartram, who was immense as Soorma turned up the wick in the third quarter
FULL TIME At the final horn, the Warriors win the game 2-1, and with it, the inaugural Women’s Hockey League championship! What a game!
59:50 Odisha has a free hit in a promising position along he right wing; can they get a goal shot?
57:20 Soorma is now choosing to pull its goalkeeper for an 11th outfielder
57:10 Odisha is taking the ball to the corner flag; are they confident enough to run clock now?
54:30 VAR DECISION The play stands as called; 23M free-in for Odisha instead of a penalty corner
54:30 ODISHA PC Yansen with the drag flick, but the Soorma defense denies it; Freeke Moes is asking for a video referral
53:46 ODISHA GOAL Wow; just like that; it is Rutaja Pisal who bags another field goal for the Warriors; her second of the game makes it 2-1
51:30 ODISHA PC Initial struck shot and a follow-up backhander are stopped by the resulute Soorma corner defense unit; ball deflected over the end line for a 23M free in
49:30 A long diagonal falls to Tete just at the intersection of the circle and the end line on the right side; she waits and holds, awaiting a tackle, but the umpire whistles her for an offensive foul
48:00 Soorma’s Salima Tete with a run into the attack third and the player goes down in a heap; no call?
46:30 Ball goes forward for Olivia Shannon, who cannot gather the ball before it strikes her foot; 16Y Odisha free-out is the result
45:00 The fourth quarter is under way
END THIRD Soorma has to go into this fourth quarter knowing it has perhaps squandered several chances this term; but for the intervention of Bartram, the game score might be quite different
END THIRD The horn sounds ending the third quarter with the game tied 1-1
39:00 Odisha with an attack up the left, but a mistrap leads to another Soorma surge
38:00 Engelbert with a backhander off the left wing and somehow Bartram gets a toe on it to sweep it away!
36:00 Odisha has to think it is under siege here
35:30 SOORMA PC Option-left is cleared by the Odisha defense after a momentary panic in the circle
34:40 Sophie Hamilton for Soorma, able to create a lane for a goal shot but cannot put enough pace on the ball to trouble Bartram
31:30 Olivia Shannon with a step into the circle from the right wing for Soorma; Bartram parries it away with her left pad
30:20 Englebert with an opening blast for Soorma; Bartram says no
30:00 The third quarter is under way
HALFTIME Amazing what one goal can do in a grand final; Pisal’s goal in the second term seemingly unlocked both teams’ creativity and pace and they played some frenetic hockey in the second term. I’ll be interested to see if either team makes a tactical switch to increase their side’s chances of winning, or whether one team or the other opts to park the bus
HALFTIME The horn sounds with the sides even at 1-1, all to play for here!
29:49 We have an official timeout for an injury to an Odisha defender; looks like a ball struck defender Jyoti in the hand. She’s tough; she’s a hockey player
27:52 SOORMA PC and GOAL Penny Squibb with a low drag flick into the corner; that is a real peach of a goal, especially for a team which has only been hitting under 4 percent for the tournament on corners thus far! Game tied 1-1
25:20 And off the Soorma long corner, the team almost gets a deflection into the goal from the goalmouth
24:58 VAR DECISION The video umpire does not have advice possible on the possible stroke call; a long corner is the result for Soorma
24:58 SOORMA PC Jyoti with a struck shot for Soorma; the ball bounds wide, but was there a foot inside the goal frame? We’ll have a VAR intervention here
22:00 Freeke Moes is loose along the left wing and she gets off a shot which is saved by Bartram
19:20 ODISHA GOAL And just like that, venom arrives! A through pass is deflected off the Soorma defense and Pisal, on the left wing, has a delightful deflection under the crossbar and Odisha has a 1-0 lead
18:00 The teams are playing cautious hockey with possession in the middle third, but little in the way of attacking venom
15:00 The second quarter is under way
END FIRST The horn sounds with the sides level
13:30 And just like that, Soorma gets room on the right wing, and chops a shot that Jocelyn Bartram defenses in the Odisha goal
12:20 Odisha has an open diagonal into Rutaja Pisal, but she cannot get the bouncing ball in frame; that could have been the opener!
9:20 Soorma’s left outside midfielder, Maria Verschoor, cuts around the corner and cannot beat the double-team
6:12 SOORMA YELLOW Charlotte Englebert receives a five-minute yellow card for an elbow in midfield. Wow. The umpires are sending a message here
4:00 Freeke Moes with a hopeful run into the Soorma circle, but the chance is taken away
0:00 The game is on
PREGAME Odisha is wearing orange with black kilts, while Soorma is wearing the white with thin red stripes
PREGAME The teams have warmed up on the blue turf, and the temperatures are around 67 degrees as the sun is setting in the Jharkhand region
PREGAME What could be an interesting sidebar to this game is the personal journey of Warriors coach Janneke Schopman. She is taking the Warriors to this final about a year after failing to lead India to the 2024 Olympics at this very stadium in Ranchi; she received a lot of criticism in the media in the Subcontinent about the performance, and was out of the India job shortly thereafter
PREGAME Charlotte Englebert, the Belgian star, leads Soorma with five goals; Odisha’s Yibbi Jansen has five for the Odisha Warriors
PREGAME Soorma, the league-leaders, have hit only 3.8 percent of corners, a stunningly low conversion rate
PREGAME Indeed, I find it interesting that, in a league with many of the best women’s field hockey players in offer, that you had a lot of taut defensive games. You look at the statistics, and the number of field goals outpaces the number of penalty corners
PREGAME In league play, the teams split two games. Soorma won 2-1 in regulation of the opener between the two sides, but Odisha won the second game in a shootout after a goalless draw
PREGAME Soorma is 4-2 on the season, while Odisha also was 4-2 on the year. Soorma’s win total were all outright victories over 60 minutes, while Odisha won half of their games by shootout
PREGAME Welcome to Ranchi, India to this inaugural final of the Women’s Hockey India League as the regular-season champion Soorma Hockey Club will play the Odisha Warriors