The Asian Games 2026 women’s hockey final will see India take on reigning champions, the People’s Republic of China, with the gold medal match set to be held at the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium in Kakamigahara, Japan, on Friday.
The India vs China women’s hockey Asian Games 2026 final is scheduled to start at 3:30 PM IST and will be available to watch on live streaming and live telecast.
The Indian women’s hockey team went unchallenged in Pool B.
They thrashed Uzbekistan 19-0, brushed aside Indonesia 17-1, routed Thailand 20-1, beat hosts Japan 3-1 and ended their group stage campaign with a 7-0 win over Singapore, topping the group with five wins and scoring a whopping 66 goals.
Salima Tete and Co. found themselves up against a tougher challenge in the semi-finals before grinding out a 2-0 victory over the Republic of Korea.
Deepika Sehrawat has been in sensational form for India and is the leading scorer at the Asian Games 2026 with 21 goals, 19 of them from penalty corners. Veteran striker Navneet Kaur has chipped in with 10 while Rutuja Pisal has scored seven.
However, Deepika’s involvement and impact have been limited in the last couple of matches as the Indian hockey player has found herself on the bench for large chunks of matches.
The Indian team, ranked eighth in the world, will hope its star raider can fire on all cylinders in Friday’s final.
Meanwhile, world No. 4 China reached the title clash with an equally ruthless campaign.
The reigning champions won all five of their Pool A matches without conceding a single goal, beating Bangladesh 13-0, Chinese Taipei 10-0, Malaysia 4-0, South Korea 3-0 and Kazakhstan 16-0, finishing with 46 goals and conceding none.
Zhong Jiaqi has been China’s main threat going forward, scoring nine goals so far at the Asian Games 2026.
In the last four, China saw off hosts Japan 4-2 in a shootout after a goalless draw. The reigning champions are yet to concede a single goal in regulation time this campaign.
The final brings together the two outstanding sides of the tournament. India and China were the only teams to win all five of their pool matches, and neither has been seriously tested on the way to the gold medal match.
China come into the fixture as the most successful side in women’s hockey at the Asian Games in recent years, having won four of the last six titles, including the gold at Hangzhou 2023.
India’s solitary crown came at New Delhi 1982 – the edition which saw women’s hockey debut at the Asian Games. Since then, India have made two more finals – Bangkok 1998 and Jakarta 2018 – but settled for silvers on both occasions.
However, there will be more than gold on offer at Aichi-Nagoya 2026.
Both men’s and women’s hockey tournaments at Asian Games 2026 double up as qualifiers for the LA 2028 Olympics, with the gold medal winners obtaining an early quota.
India vs China women’s hockey head-to-head
India and China have met 28 times in women’s hockey and China hold a slender edge in the head-to-head record with 12 wins to India’s 11. Five of the meetings have been drawn.
The sides last met at the 2026 FIH World Cup, where they played out a thrilling 2-2 draw. Navneet Kaur and Deepika Sehrawat scored for India in the match.
Where to watch India vs China Asian Games 2026 women’s hockey final live
Live streaming of the India vs China women’s hockey match in the Asian Games 2026 final will be available to watch on Sony LIV.
The IND vs CHN Asian Games women’s hockey match will be telecast live on the Sony Sports 2 and Sony Sports 5 TV channels in India. The match will also be broadcast live in regional languages on Sony Sports 3 (Hindi) and Sony Sports 4 (Tamil, Telugu and Kannada).
