When India takes on the Oranje test today, a lot will be on stake.
After having a decent year so far with a silver medal in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and a gold medal in the Incheon Games, the Indian squad looks as if it is losing the charm which it displayed on the field in their recent outings.
Old habits die hard and the same happened when India lost to Germany in the first match with barely 40 seconds left in the match. In the second match against Argentina, despite taking lead twice, India failed in the counter-attack control and lost the lead within a minute on both the occasion.
So, in the match against the World number two Netherlands, who are already on a high after winning both their matches, India can hardly afford to miss out on their basics.
Coach Roelant Oltmans, who is a Dutchman himself, already realizes the big test ahead. “They are a strong squad. Netherlands are the best team so far in the Champions Trophy. They are in a good shape and it will not be an easy match for us.”
Another aspect to be looked into will be the crowd support. The huge crowd which turned up in India’s first two matches might as not support the team in as many numbers. Now, whethera this would have a positive or a negative effect on the team, perhaps the match result would indicate.
While skipper Sardar Singh did point out after the last match that the ‘overenthusiastic crowd’ did affect the team’s performance, crowd not turning out it large numbers could be a bad sign for Indian hockey.
STATS OUTLOOK
India and Netherlands have so far played 12 matches in CTs, India won twice and the match ended draw twice.
However, in the last six encounters India lost to Netherlands four times by a solitary goal margin.
Netherlands’ biggest margin victory over India is 6-2 in 1980 and 3-0 in 1985.