Unrelated visuals of Indian women’s hockey win shared as 'revenge against Australia'

By: Chandan Borgohain
November 29 2023

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Screenshots of social media posts sharing unrelated video as Indian women’s hockey team celebrating win against Australia. (Source: Facebook/Screenshots/Modified by Logically Facts)

What is the claim?

A 26-second video circulating on social media features a group of women hockey players in blue lifting a trophy, followed by a collage of photos showing Indian women hockey players celebrating on the field. Some users claim this video depicts the Indian team's victory over Australia in the "Women Hockey World Championship." The video is also being hailed by several users on Facebook as "revenge" for India's loss to Australia in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup final on November 19, 2023.

Sharing the video on Facebook on November 24, a user wrote, “(We) lost the Cricket World Cup, it feels very bad. But at this time, there’s another good news, the Indian hockey team won the ‘Women Hockey World Championship’ against Australia (sic)." An archived version of the post can be found here.

Another Facebook user shared the same video. The caption, written in Assamese, reads, “Finally, our Indian women's hockey team defeated Australia and fulfilled the revenge of 140 crore people.” An archived version of this post can be found here.

Screenshots of social media posts sharing the viral clip. (Source: Facebook/Screenshots/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, this claim is incorrect. The video and photos in the clip predate the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup and do not depict a recent victory over Australia. The Indian Women’s hockey team recently won the Women's Asian Champions Trophy by defeating Japan 4-0, not Australia.

What does the video show?

At the 0:12 mark of the viral video, the words “Jharkhand Women’s Asian Champions Trophy” appear behind the players. Based on this, we located a Hindustan Times article about India's victory in the Women's Asian Champions Trophy final in Ranchi, Jharkhand, on November 5, 2023. India clinched gold by defeating Japan 4-0.

A related YouTube short by The Economic Times, published on November 6, shows the Indian team celebrating on stage. The video, titled “Asian Champions Trophy: Indian Women's Hockey team celebrates after beating Japan by 4-0,” matches the viral video from 0:01 to 0:19.

Comparison of the screenshots of the viral video and the Economic Times video. (Source: Facebook/YouTube/Screenshots/Modified by Logically Facts)

This confirms that the video shows the Indian team's victory against Japan, not Australia. It is also clear that the event occurred before the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup final.

What about the photos?

We also checked the two photos used in the collage towards the end of the video and found that they are not recent. A reverse image search revealed that both images are from August 2021. 

We found a report by The Guardian dated August 2, 2021, that features one of the images and states that it shows Indian national players Navneet Kaur and Neha Goyal. According to the photo's caption, it was captured by Charly Triballeau for AFP/Getty Images during the Indian women's hockey team’s Olympic quarterfinal win against Australia on August 2, 2021. The Indian team defeated Australia by 1-0 at the Oi Hockey Stadium.

The other image in the college was also from the same event and can be found on the Getty Images website. The caption of the photograph taken by Buda Mendes reads, “Navneet Kaur, Neha Neha and Lalremsiami of Team India celebrate their 1-0 win with teammates while Karri Somerville reacts after the Women's Quarterfinal match between Australia and India on day ten of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Oi Hockey Stadium on August 02, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan.”

Screenshot of the photograph showing Indian women's hockey players celebrating their win against Australia in the Olympic quarterfinals in August 2021. (Source: Getty Images/Screenshot)

The most recent women's hockey match between India and Australia was in May 2023 in Adelaide, Australia.

The verdict

The viral video falsely claims to show the Indian women's hockey team celebrating a win against Australia. It depicts the team's celebration after defeating Japan in the Asian Champions Trophy final on November 6, 2023. The photos in the video are from August 2021, showing India's win over Australia in the Olympic quarterfinals. This claim is, therefore, marked as false.