New Delhi: The Indian women's hockey team has beaten South Africa 4-3 in a do-or-die match. Vandana Kataria scored three goals and Neha Goyal scored one goal for India. Vandana Kataria has become the first Indian woman to score a hat-trick in Olympic competition. Hopes of the Indian hockey team going to the next round are still there. If Britain beat Ireland today, India will reach the quarterfinals.

Vandana Kataria scored the first goal in the fourth minute as the first quarter gave India a good start. However, South Africa scored an equalizer in the final moments of the first quarter. In the second quarter too, Vandana scored another goal in an aggressive game to take the score to 2-1. However, South Africa hit India's weak defense line for the second time to level the match 2-2 in the first half. In the third quarter, India once again made a great start to take a 3-2 lead with the help of Neha Goyal's goal. But South Africa returned to the match with their third goal to level the match once again. Vandana scored the third goal in the 49th minute to give India a 4-3 lead, which proved decisive. Tarin Glass by, captain Erin Hunter and Marijen Marais scored for South Africa.

The Indian team, which qualified for the Olympics for the second time in a row, finished 12th in the Rio Olympics. In the first three matches, India was defeated 5-1 by the world number one Netherlands, 2-0 by Germany, and 4-1 by defending champions Britain. Navneet Kaur's goal in the fourth match helped India beat Ireland 1-0.

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