English
New Delhi: When the Indian team left for the FIH Women’s Hockey World Cup, there were some hopes that they would come up with some good performances and make people sit up and notice. Sadly, the efforts were meek at best and while there was a lot of willingness, the sheer lack of finishing cost the side a place in the quarter-finals with a 0-1 loss to Spain in their crossover match relegating to a placing match against Canada on Monday. Not quite the way they would have wanted to finish.
The match against Spain was a stark reminder of how poor the Indian team’s finishing has been throughout the tournament, and if they didn’t lose by a bigger margin, it was thanks to the goalkeeping efforts of team captain Savita.
There were instances when Savita was called up to make multiple saves as the ball bounced around inside the India circle like some crazed pinball game. She managed most of it and even had a save off the Spanish goal-scoring effort but it ricocheted straight to arrival player.
Not just the crossover matches, right through their pool matches to India had Savita to thank on many occasions.
As for their own finishing one stat makes it all so clear – in the match against New Zealand, India had 13 penalty corners and converted one. That in a match where they were in the battle right till the final hooter before going down 3-4.
The other two matches against England and China should have come India’s way, but once again, some really inept finishing in front of the goal saw them end up with draws. This included an absolute open-net opportunity late in the match with China.
Apart from Savita, Vandana Katariya showed some glimpses of quality while Selima Tete made quite a mark with some searing runs through the flanks that had the opposition defence in quite a bit of trouble.
The midfield game, while not perfect, had its moments though the defence seemed quite out of its depth at several occasions.
The finishing, as mentioned earlier, was India’s bugbear throughout the tournament and a lot of improvement in performances and a re-look at the team combinations will surely be one the cards if the side is expected to do better things in the near future.
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