Mumbai, Sep 19: India on Sunday won a silver medal in the Asia Rugby U18 Girls Rugby Sevens Championship 2021, losing 21-17 to the United Arab Emirates in a well-fought final held at Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
In the final, Nandini top-scored for India with seven points while Aditi Kumari and Tarulata Nair contributed five points each to the Indian score. Both teams scored three ties each. For UAE, Carmela Morralla scored nine points while Hannah Lear added seven, and Lara Botha contributed five.
India had reached the final by beating Kazakhstan 24-7 in the semi-final with Sapna Kumari top-scoring with 10 points including two tries. Tarulata Naik scored nine points while Arti Kumari added five points.
In the two-day tournament that had five teams – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, UAE, India, and hosts Uzbekistan – played in an all-play-all round-robin format, India started with a 12-10 defeat to Kazakhstan. The girls came back strongly to blank Kyrgyzstan 63-0 and defeated hosts Uzbekistan 20-5.
On Sunday, they lost to UAE girls 20-12, thus finishing third in the five-team league. (IANS)
