Tournament favourites Argentina coasted into Saturday's final of the Spar Cup four nations women's hockey tournament with a predictable 7-1 crushing of underdogs India at Queensmead on Friday.
India, who lost all three of their round robin matches, will play in Saturday's third-place playoff. The Indians actually held majority possession early on but Argentina took control when Noel Barionuevo scored off a penalty corner in the ninth minute.
Six minutes later Argentina capitalised on another short corner with Silvina D'Elia flicking it up to Carla Dupuy who deflected it in.
Midway through the half Josefina Sruoga put them three goals ahead with a reverse shot that provided the best field goal of the tournament. And superb team work between Soledad Garcia and Alejandra Gulla gave them a four goal lead going into the break with Gulla scoring her first of the tournament.
It took the Argentinians less than two minutes in the second half to keep the score sheet ticking over when Barionuevo netted her second of the match. India put up their usual late fight but the Argentinians never released the pressure as they continued to attack.
In the 78th minute Giselle Kanevsky passed from outside the opposition's 23-meter line to Gulla in the circle who had little trouble scoring her second with only India goalkeeper Savita Puina to beat. With less than five minutes on the clock, Rani Rampal got one back for India but Argentina's Delfina Merino added one more for good measure in the final minute. - Sapa