Indian juniors notched up their third win, defeating Chile 2-1 today in the last of the three matches in Santiago while the senior women in Argentina went down valiantly 2-3 to the B team of the hosts at Buenos Aires.

Senior women and Argentina B were 1-1 at half time.

Buenos Aires: India went down 2-3 to Argentina ‘B’ in a thriller on Sunday. The tourists put in a plucky performance against an experienced Argentine side who held fort against a late Indian surge. Sol Pagela (25’), Constanza Cerundolo (38’) and Agustina Gorzelany (39’) scored for Argentina ‘B’. Salima Tete (6’) and Gurjit Kaur (42’) were on target for India.

The visitors were off to a flyer, forcing a penalty corner in the opening minute. A deliberate foul during the set-piece led to a penalty stroke which was saved. India put the missed opportunity behind them and took the lead in the sixth minute through young Salima Tete who has shown good form on the tour.

“We had a very good start to the match and though we couldn’t score off the penalty stroke, we were able to convert after a good interception in the sixth minute. In the first quarter, we were in control and kept a check on Argentina but the second quarter, they upped their game,” explained chief coach Sjoerd Marijne of the Netherlands.

The Indian defence erred in the second quarter and the home side struck through Sol Pagela’s 25th minute goal to make it 1-1. Argentina ‘B’ then grabbed the match by the scruff with goals in the 38th and 39th minutes. “I believe these two goals could have been stopped. We had restricted their circle entries to just five in this quarter but allowed them to convert twice in those five attempts. Though Gurjit scored in the following minutes to reduce the lead by one goal, we missed some good scoring opportunities thereafter. I feel we were a bit too rushed in our pursuit to convert. We must do much better to win from Argentina in the next following matches,” stated Marijne.

Touring Argentina after covid-19 restrictions kept the Indian team out of competition for a year, India have tested their core group in the past four matches. The team drew two matches (2-2,1-1) and suffered two losses (1-2 and 2-3) in matches against the Argentina junior and ‘B’ squads. Sterner challenges lie ahead. India, led by Rani Rampal, take on the World No.2 squad, the Las Leonas, the full Argentina national squad.

“In the third and fourth matches, Argentina played with an experienced side that had recently won against Australia ‘A’ and this was a perfect platform for our players to adapt to their level. In these four matches, all the players in the Indian core group got a chance to show their best. In the upcoming four matches we will field our best side to see what we can create against the World No.2 team. There have been good learnings from these four matches, and I want to see how our main team performs against them,” Marijne said.

What next

India take on World No.2 Argentina on January 27 at 0400 hours IST.