The languishing Indian women’s hockey team will have to tick all the boxes against New Zealand in their final Pool B match on Thursday to make a straight-forward place in the quarter-finals of the FIH. World cup.
The Indians, who finished a historic fourth at last year’s Olympics, drew 1-1 against Tokyo bronze medalists England and China in their first two pool matches.
The Savita-led side are currently third in Pool B, two points below China and leaders New Zealand, who beat England 3-1 on Tuesday. According to the tournament format, the 16 teams are divided into four pools of four teams each. The top four teams from each pool will qualify directly for the quarterfinals, while the second and third placed teams will participate in a crossover.
In the crossover, the second team from Pool A will play Pool D’s third and vice versa, while the other team from Pool B will play Pool C’s third and vice versa for the remaining four quarterfinal spots. So, India Will look for an outright win against New Zealand and the Chinese will look for a draw or a loss against England to top Pool B.
But the way he played in the first two games, that would be easy to do. While the Indian defense has impressed in both the matches, denying England a single penalty corner in the first game, it is the performance of the forward line and midfield that was found desired.
Barring two goalscorer Vandana Katariya for India, none of the strikers could live up to the expectations as players like Lalremsiami, Sharmila Devi and Navneet Kaur are too bad. It is not that Indians did not create opportunities, but they failed to capitalize on the opportunity. The midfield also needed to improve its game as it was raging against China.
Penalty corner conversions are also a concern for head coach Janneke Schopman as India have used up just two of the 12 they have earned in the two matches, with both goals coming indirectly from Vandana’s sticks. Against England, Vandana scored from a rebound, against China she found a graceful deflection for Gurjeet’s flick to draw India level. Gurjit Kaur needs to hone her skills and increase her conversion rate if India is to move ahead in the tournament.
In terms of rankings, there is hardly anything to separate the two sides as New Zealand are ranked eighth while India are down a notch. However, the women of the Black Sticks will be full of confidence after their win over England. Both sides will have a fair idea of the equations they need as China and England play earlier on Thursday.
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