Indian girls scored two goals in the last five minutes in addition to the fist half’s 18th minute strike to defeat Canada 3-0 in the 5th position decider today at the Major Dhyan Chand National Hockey Stadium. With this, the program for the Indian ladies come to an end.
Ritu Rani, who was played upfront in the tournament instead at midfield, struck in the 18th minute to have lemon time with a lead.
Indians, despite dominating the exchanges, could not move the scoreboard. However at the fag end the match, five minutes before the hooter to be specific, Chanchan Devi struk, and at the stroke of the final seconds Saba Anjum, only player in the Indian team to figure in three Commonwealth Games, posted the Indian campaign’s last goal.
“It was our last match in the CWG. But we were shocked with not being in the semis. We wil, never repeat such mistakes”, rued Saba.
Star player of the side Dipika Thakur said, “Everyone played their game today well. They gave their best. We fought hard, and we always play like that IT’s just we made some mistakes earlier and they cost us those game”.
Coach Sandeep Somesh seemed to be a contended man, and took the overall result in his own stride when he said, “I have a team that has this capacity to put a bad match behind them and mver forward, though a bad match is just a bad match”.
“There are many important aspects that we miss. Like the fast transfer from defence to attack, quick switches, penaty corners and goal-scoring and lost of other aereas. I know the team’s moral was pretty low on the eve of the match agaisnt Canada. We realized that we could not make the semfinals, but we take credit that we refocussed for today’s match and the team showed a lot of character”.