On Thursday, The Indian women’s hockey team has a chance to with boldness go wherever no Indian aspect has gone for a awfully very long time. They themselves were in this rarefied air at the inaugural world cup in 1974. All they have to try to is beat Ireland, the 16th-ranked team within the world, an eminently realizable task, although they pipped the Indians by a solitary goal once they met during a group match last week at the Lee valley Hockey and tennis Centre.
Regardless of the result on Thursday, the Indian women’s hockey team has come a long means within the last few years, despite the powers-that-be often treating it as nearly an afterthought. The relative lack of spotlight, compared to the men’s outfit, and also the manner during which coaches are moved around only serve to strengthen that impression. The team didn’t even make it to the last world cup four years ago when ending ninth in 2010, and when it made it to the olympics in 2016, when a hiatus of 36 years, they finished 12th among as many groups, losing four of their 5 matches and drawing the other one.
Coach Sjoerd Marijne knows life from each side of the fence, having been at the helm of the men’s team for a while, and understands however huge a deal this run at the globe Cup is for the girls.
“This is such an honest moment for women in India to show that they will reach one thing. we don’t get to play several matches in india. So, this win may be a huge one for India,” the dutchman said.
The turnaround from 2 years ago is outstanding in itself. The team, coached by Australian Neil Hawgood, scored 3 goals whereas concession 19 in rio. whereas grading goals was so a haul within the in progress tournament still — they managed simply three in 3 cluster matches before pumping 3 past the outclassed Italians, the defence has seen a marked improvement with the Indian stronghold broken simply 3 times in four matches.
Those games included clashes against the No.2-ranked england and also the No.7-ranked united states. italy never had a real chance of rating on Tuesday, and solely managed a solitary penalty corner. Indian goalkepeer Savita Punia, who has been in tremendous type, for once, wasn’t known as upon too usually.
