India lose 0-3 to Netherlands in Women’s Junior Hockey World Cup semifinal
MONCHENGLADBACH (Germany): India’s dream run in the Women’s Junior Hockey World Cup came to a halt after defending champions Netherlands scored a 3-0 win in the second semifinal on Friday.
The Indians, who registered their best ever performance in this tournament, put up a brave fight against their fancied rivals but it was not enough to earn them a place in the title clash.
The Dutch girls sounded the board thrice through Lieke van Wijk (17th minute), Lisanne de Lange (57th) and Lisa Scheerlinck (68th) to complete a resounding victory and seal their place in Sunday’s final.
While Netherlands will face Argentina in the summit clash, India will take on England for the third-fourth place play off match on Sunday.
In the first semifinal, Argentina defeated England by an identical 3-0 margin.
In the first half, much of the action was centered around the midfield as both the teams struggled to create promising scoring opportunities from open play.
India put an inspired performance in the opening 17 minutes before Netherlands took the lead through tournament’s top-scorer van Wijk, who converted her side’s first penalty corner with a fierce dragflick that beat rival goalkeeper Chanu Sanarik Ningombam all ends up.
A few minutes later, the Dutch girls forced another penalty corner but the resultant shot went wide.
India had a promising scoring opportunity before halftime when they earned their first penalty corner but they failed to cash in on the opportunity.
The Indians tried hard for the equaliser only to be denied by the compact Dutch defence to go into the breather trailing 0-1.
The Indians continued to impress after the change of ends but goals eluded them.
India stepped the pace up after the break and forced their second penalty corner in the 41st minute but to no avail.
If not for India custodian Ningombam the margin of defeat could have been bigger. She made two tremendous saves to deny van Wijk from Netherlands their third penalty corner to keep the Asian side in the hunt.
But it was de Lange who doubled the Dutch side’s lead in the 57th minute with a field goal.
With six minutes from the hooter, Rani got a great opportunity to pull one back for the Indians only to be denied by Netherlands goalkeeper Anne Veenendaal.
Lisa Scheerlinck took the game away from India’s grasp when she scored from a counter-attack just two minutes from time.