WATCH: SA women relieved to salvage draw at Hockey World Cup

The South African women’s hockey team rebounded from a terrible start to their crunch World Cup match against Japan on Tuesday night, fighting back from 3-0 down with 20 minutes remaining to salvage a 3-3 draw as they avoided elimination from quarterfinal contention in Terrassa, Spain.

Having conceded two goals in the first eight minutes, South Africa then went 3-0 down three minutes into the second half. Hesitant on the ball and porous in defence, the African champions’ hopes were faltering.

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But they then fought back superbly with Onthatile Zulu giving the Japanese defence a torrid time with her attacking runs down the flank.

South Africa were on the board in the 37^th minute through Kristen Paton’s reflex shot after a rebound from Kayla de Waal’s strike.

The team sitting in 16^th spot on the world rankings continued to pile pressure on the 10^th-ranked Japanese in the final quarter, with another fine run by Zulu earning a 54^th-minute penalty corner. Jean-Leigh du Toit’s slap was brilliantly guided in by Tarryn Lombard to cut the deficit to 1-2.

With two minutes remaining, Zulu won another short corner and Lombard steered the ball home again to complete a remarkable comeback.

“We started very slowly and conceding two goals in the first quarter really set us back,” stalwart goalkeeper Phumelela Mbande said afterwards.

“We did well to come back, we knew we were never out of it, but it took pure grit and determination,” she added.

“We knew what it meant if we lost, but now we are still in it, which we wanted so badly. We will fight even harder against Australia.”

South Africa and Japan both have one point in the standings, but the Cherry Blossoms are currently in third place in Pool D – the last qualifying spot – because they have a goal-difference of minus-two compared to South Africa’s minus-three.

South Africa have conceded seven goals and scored four, and if they can somehow prevent making it an octoplet of shots into the back of their net against Australia in the late game on Wednesday night, then they could pip Japan on goal-difference.