HWL W 2015: India ready for Italy test

New Delhi, 01 July 2015: Having played a test series against Italy last year, Indian girls have plenty of experience to put out Italian fire tomorrow when they met for the 5-8th position play at Antwerp.

A favourable result here will position India for the best ever finish in a recent FIH tournament, that is 5th.

however, Italians wont be a push over.

India met Italy last year during the Italy Test Series 2014 where India lost the series.

Indian girls need to use the lessons learnt there gainfully to realize their ambition reaching top five, best option available now after losing the quarters yesterday.

Captain Ritu Rani said:“The tournament has been very competitive for us so far but there were a lot of positives that came out. From our last clash against Netherlands, we realised that we need to work on our defence chain as well as giving away the penalty corners and maintain the ball possession to pounce on the opportunities. We aim to win this match which will help us to conclude the tournament with a better position for the team.”

Expecting a good performance with the team in the tomorrow’s clash, Chief Coach Mathias Ahrens said, “The girls fought really well in the last two quarters of the match against Netherlands. This is a classification match and we have to win it to place ourselves better in the tournament. The girls are in good form which will help them to tackle the opponent strongly. Tomorrow will be a crucial game for us and the team will be putting in all efforts to play a good hockey and win the match.”

India will face Italy in the classification match for the 5th/8th position in the FINTRO Hockey World League Semi-Final 2015 at 16:30 IST on the 2nd July 2015. The matches will be telecast LIVE on Star Sports 1.