Times of India:We have to convert penalty corners in the semi-final: Rani
WEST VANCOUVER: The Indian women’s team captain Rani said that her side would need to convert the penalty corners if they want to win their semi-final match against Belarus in the Women’s Hockey World League Round 2.
Even though the Indian eves are managing to win the PCs, they are not so successful in converting them. In the game against Belarus in the league stage, they earned as many as five PCs but their lone goal came from a field goal.
“It is an area of concern for us. We have to convert PCs in the semi-final game and we are putting in extra minutes specifically for PCs in our practice sessions here,” she said on Friday.
Rani feels that they also have to be inch-perfect in their man-to-man marking in order to get the better of Belarus.
“We are quite upbeat and confident of a good performance against Belarus. They are a strong unit and to beat them we need to be at our best in man-to-man marking and also work on our scoring especially PC conversions,” the striker said.
India had defeated Uruguay 4-2 via penalty shootout and Belarus 1-0 to top their Pool and make the cut, while Belarus defeated Canada 4-3 in the qualifier yesterday to earn their semi-final berth.
“We are very excited that we made the semi-finals. We had clear goals before coming here that we must make it to the final and win it if we want to qualify for the Women’s Hockey World League Semi-Final. I think it is a realistic goal and we are prepared for a good match tomorrow,” she Rani.
Though the Indian eves won both their matches in Pool A, Rani feels that they should have won their first game against Uruguay in regulation time itself.
“We should have played that match in a much better way. When we had our post-match team meeting, we agreed that we didn’t play to our potential and marked out the mistakes we made. We could have avoided a penalty shootout situation. But I feel we improved in the second game and didn’t make the same mistakes we did in our first outing,” she insisted.
India will take on Belarus on Sunday.