Indian girls blank Azerbaijan 3-0 to clinch ‘Test’ series
Ritu Sejwal, TNN
NEW DELHI: Sushila Chanu set the momentum for India’s 3-0 win in the third hockey ‘Test’ against Azerbaijan at the National stadium on Wednesday.
With just three minutes into the clash, Chanu caught the goalkeeper Saadat Nuriyeva by surprise when her shot found space between the goalkeeper’s legs.
The Azerbaijani women responded quickly and earned their first penalty corner 13 minutes later but failed to beat the strong Indian defence. A few minutes later, Azerbaijan defenders denied the Indians when Chanu took a crisp shot at the goal. The Indian forwards tried to make up for that by earning a penalty corner (20th minute) but failed to make an impression.
With the first coming to a frantic end, Anuradha Devi gave the home team the much needed cushion in the 32nd minute when she calmly collected a rebound from Vandana Kataria’s shot and slammed home in a jiffy.
The second half saw both teams struggle trying to convert score through penalty corners. Just when one thought that the 2-0 scoreline had been sealed, Ritu Rani decided to get into the scorers’ book in the 67th minute to make it 3-0 for India.
India earned four penalty corners but failed to convert any. “It’s a positive sign. We focused more on the field goals. Jaspreet and Rani are injured so our penalty conversion rate has dropped. But we are happy with our performance and the fitness level,” said coach C R Kumar, who had stressed on field goals at the beginning of the ‘Test’ series.
Kumar though, was not happy about the girls losing ball possession at important points. “Our players made a lot of unforced errors. That builds pressure and pulls the team down. They (Azerbaijan) were not rushing but they were just crowding and closing down very fast. We tried to shake them away and score,” he said.
India are now 3-0 up in the series with the last game to be played on Thursday.
This series is a warm-up exercise for the Indians who will play South Africa, Poland, Ukraine, Italy and Canada in the Olympic qualifiers from February 18-26.
“We will be up against teams that play in the European style. Playing with Azerbaijan has raised the tempo of the team and we have tried a lot of different combinations,” Kumar added.