Chinese women's field hockey team beats New Zealand 5-2

WELLINGTON, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese women's field hockey team beat its New Zealand counterpart 5-2 in the Women Hockey World Pro League 2022-23 match held on Sunday in Wellington, New Zealand.

China had a brilliant start to the game, spending the opening five minutes in and around the Black Sticks' circle. They earned an early penalty corner as well, but the ball wasn't stopped cleanly at the top of the circle and the opportunity was missed. Gu Bingfeng's low shot opened the scoring for China in the ninth minute, as her low shot hit the post defender's foot and led to a penalty stroke.

A penalty corner by Gu at the beginning of the second quarter forced a fantastic save by Brooke Roberts, diving low to her right as China searched for a second goal to increase their cushion. New Zealand's first score came in the 20th minute, when Olivia Merry stepped up to take the deflecting hockey in her team's first penalty corner to open China's gate.

China restored their lead in the 23rd minute as a cross from the left fell to Zhang Xiaoxue, who dragged the ball to her reverse and scored with a powerful tomahawk shot. The Snow Lotuses increased their lead soon when a cross into the New Zealand circle was met by keeper Roberts, but her clearance fell straight to Zou Meirong, whose shot across the face of the goal was deflected in by Chen Yang.

New Zealand started the second half more positively and won an early penalty corner but Lench could not make contact and the chance was missed. New Zealand halved the deficit late in the third quarter from a penalty corner. Merry's first attempt was well blocked by the first rusher, but the ball fell to Merry once again and her second attempt was deflected in at the far post by Hannah Cotter, who just scored her first international goal in the game against the United States on Saturday.

China won a string of penalty corners in the final quarter and got incredibly close to scoring as Gu's drag flick hit the left post and came away. A minute later, China scored their fourth from another penalty corner, opting for a variation as Gu's low shot was deflected brilliantly by Chen, completely wrong-footing Brooke Roberts in the goal.

Penalty corners kept coming for China and they added the fifth goal in the 55th minute, with another variation as Gu sent a low-driven pass to the right of the goal, where Liang Meiyu dived to get a touch that snuck through the legs of the post defender to seal the points for China.

Chen, who was awarded player of the match said: "We had a good run today. We went all out and that was close to a perfect performance for us."