India needs one win to qualify

India stayed in the hunt for a berth in the women's World Cup hockey finals by routing Kazakhstan 4-0 in their concluding Pool A match in the qualifying tournament in Amiens, France, on Wednesday.

It was India's second consecutive big victory following a 5-0 rout of France on Tuesday.

India finished their preliminary league engagements with 10 points -- with three wins, a draw and two defeats -- to finish third in Pool A.

England, with 18 points (six wins), and Ukraine, with 11 points, (three wins, a defeat and two draws) finished first and second respectively and entered the semi-finals.

The Indians continued with their brilliant form, which they showed against France, to lead 3-0 at the end of the first half.

Surinder Kaur opened India's account in the 16th minute and five minutes later Amandeep Kaur increased the margin. India's relentless attack on the Kazakh goal continued and Maimon Chanu struck the third goal in the 32nd minute.

The second half was comparatively dull after Bala scored India's fourth goal in the 37th minute. Kazakhstan held on for the remaining 33 minutes without conceding any more goals.

With rain falling and the light deteriorating, the floodlights were put on. India continued to create chances but could not ascore from them. Sunita Kullu was unlucky to see the upright deny her a goal and just before the final hooter, Kazakhstan goalkeeper Manya Tussubshanova saved a penalty-stroke.

India will face the team placed fourth in the Pool B for the 5th-8th place classification matches.

In other classification matches, the team placed third in Pool B will face the team placed fourth in Pool A. The winners of both the matches will play for 5th/6th positions and the losers of both the matches will play for 7th/8th positions. Thus India needs just one victory from the next two matches to make the grade.

Only the top seven teams make it to the World Cup finals at Perth in November-December 2002. The team that eventually finishes seventh, however, will have to beat the United States, who missed the qualifier because of the terrorist attacks on the US, in a three-match play-off later this year.

In other Pool A matches, Ireland drew with Ukraine 1-1 while France beat Uruguay 3-0.

The draw with Ukraine shunted Ireland to the fourth position in Pool A behind India on inferior goal difference. The solitary point gave Ukraine a place in the semi-finals of the tournament, along with England and Japan, as also the World Cup finals for the first time.

The league standings -- Pool A

Country	Played	Won	Drew	Lost	For	Against	Difference	Points
England	6	6	0	0	20	3	17	18
Ukraine	6	3	2	1	19	17	2	11
India	6	3	1	2	14	5	9	10
Ireland	6	3	1	2	9	4	5	10
France	6	2	1	3	7	13	-6	7
Kazakhstan	6	1	1	4	6	12	-6	4
Uruguay	6	0	0	6	1	22	-21	0

Women's World Cup qualifier - The Complete coverage