India went to the top of Pool D at the FIH Women's Hockey World Cup, with a dominant 6-1 win over South Africa at the Wagener Stadium in Amstelveen on Tuesday. Sjoerd Marijne's side now need only a draw against England in the first pool game to qualify for the second round.
India went into this game as favourites and played like it. They took the lead in the opening quarter, with a nicely worked field goal, after a good passing sequence down the left. Sakshi Rana's shot was scuffed, but Sunelita Toppo was on hand to tap into an empty net at the far-post.
India doubled their lead a few minutes into the second quarter after a fierce slap from Navneet Kaur off a penalty corner, as India's talismanic attacker scored her second goal of the tournament. Soon after that, Sushila Chanu added a third, after Ddeepika Sehrawat's dragflick deflected into her path, and she scuffed a shot past the South African goalkeeper.
India went into half-time at 3-0, but Sjoerd Marijne, in his interview at the break, was clear that he wanted more goals and a better performance from his team. They gave him that in the third quarter. First, Deepika scored with a fierce tomahawk for her second goal of the tournament. Then Lalremsiami and Sakshi added goals at the end of the quarter, both with tomahawks, as India hurtled towards their biggest-ever World Cup win.
In the end, South Africa pulled one back through Kayla de Waal after a deflection from a dragflick fell into her path, but that didn't stop India from registering their biggest-ever World Cup win, beating the previous best -- a 4-1 win against Spain in 1974.
China's 4-2 win against England earlier in the day means that India only need a draw in their last pool match to qualify for the second round.
You can relive the match, as it happened, on our live blog below: