Indian girls appear still rusty

Indian women’s team, getting ready for the first major international tournament of the year – Champions Challenge Cup in Dublin, Ireland – appears rusty if one goes by the poor game they had against Delhi boys on Tuesday night at the Dhyan Chand national stadium.

Delhi boys, on trail for team selection for the forthcoming National Championship, played a full match in the evening under floodlights. Despite being equally rusty, they could score half a dozen goals, though in the last quarter of the match the girls came up with a couple of replies.

More than the goals the manner in which the girls organized do not inspire confidence, but nothing can be said conclusively based on a single practice match though.

Having said this, it has to be admitted that the forwardline looked ordinary. Saba Anjum and Deepika being the most experienced of the frontal attack, much was expected of them to make the attack sharper. It was not there. Though Deepika lapped on to a rebound and scored a Penalty Corner goal, what she missed in scoring or setting up others overwhelmed. It was after Soundarya was brought in the second half, they could give some jitters to the run of the mill defence.

In the first half, Delhi scored at will, a goal coming from close range from the cage by a single forward who held on for long time solely despite the girls intend to over-crowd. This goal even prompted CR Kumar, the chief coach, who was also whistling, to call Mukta Prava Barla and advise.

It is surprising to see the lack of form of, of all the stars, Rani Ramphal. She was anything but sharp, even missing a clear and easy chance in the circle about 10 minutes before the hooter. She hit the rebound on the body of the already fallen flat goalie!

In the first session Yogita guarded the cage; even as Savita and other under-study were seen kicking the ball between them on the sidelines. Former great Tingonleima Chanu, now a deputy coach, spent nearly the entire lemon time to counsel the young goalie.

One aspect that stood out glaringly was penalty corner drills. Both defence and offence was not upto the mark. Delhi is just a raw team, still could score off penalty corners. A ball hit the left leg of Kirandeep, and went into the goal; couple of times rebound was played for a while before put in the cage. Lot of leeway was given to the attackers. It gives an impression the defenders are either lethargic or lack commonsense even to the extent of likened to novices.

With so much experience at their disposal the girls could have easily overcome the boys with precision passing and defence spliting long hits and scoops. The girls game rose to some level only the latter part of the game, in which they got lot many chances to score.

May be strong hitters in the mould of Subhadra or Suman Bala is what the team lacks. Asunta is flat on form for long; immediate task of coach CR Kumar need to find a strong pivot.

CR Kumar has shed some deadweights, he needs to be more merciless in future team selection. This is my first thought after watching girls in action after long time, the last one being the Commonwealth Games on the same venue.

Note: Yesterday the girls played against boys on the same turf on which the story changing, emotion-evoking Chak de India sequence of boys-girls trail sequence was held.