Pro League: Indian women’s hockey team looks to end home leg on a high, faces Australia and USA
Rourkela, Feb 16 (PTI) Bruised and battered, the Indian women’s hockey team will look to end the campaign at home on a high note when it takes on Australia and the USA in the Pro League here over the weekend.
Having failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics, the Savita Punia-led team’s performance has gone from bad to worse against the top sides in the ongoing FIH Pro League, losing five of their six matches.
After suffering a 1-2 defeat in their first match against China, India went on to lose 1-3 to the Netherlands and 0-3 to Australia before beating the United States 3-1 in their final match of the Bhubaneswar leg.
In their first match of the Rourkela leg, India took the lead early but China came back strongly to win the game 2-1. India then went on to lose 0-1 to the Netherlands.
Although they produced a much-improved defensive show against Netherlands in the previous game, they lacked sharpness and innovative moves upfront and their penalty corner conversion rate remains abysmal.
“We lost the last encounter against Australia but we are focused on securing the win this time and we will give our one hundred percent,” Savita said.
“Australia plays a similar style to us, they are exceptional at transferring their balls and their finishing is top notch but we will aim to nullify this and win our one-on-one battles.
