India women team works on minimizing errors

Ritu Sejwal, TNN

NEW DELHI: The Indian women’s hockey team showcased some of its best moves against Canada in their second match of the qualifiers at the National stadium on Sunday. This was heartening coming just two days after the girls wasted several opportunities to be held by Ukraine 1-1.

Despite a remarkably improved performance, Asunta Lakra’s girls on Monday decided to work on the weak areas which were exposed during the match against Canada. “We know our girls are capable of raising the bar. It was unfortunate that we fumbled in the opening match. The girls took too much pressure on themselves,” coach CR Kumar said.

India now have four points from two matches and next play lowest-ranked Poland. “We watched the videos of Poland’s previous matches and have worked on a gameplan for Tuesday’s clash. We will watch the videos again so that the girls know what to do against the rivals,” Kumar said, referring to the team’s early morning practice session.

Meanwhile, injury issues are back to haunt the hosts. Anuradha, who scored the fourth goal for India against Canada, had to be taken away in a wheelchair after the forward failed to control her speed while attempting to deflect the ball and pulled her thigh muscle in the process. “Anuradha was sent for a scan. We are waiting for the results. She’s walking now but there is a difference in walking and running. We will wait and watch as we don’t want to take any risk at this moment,” Kumar said.

Poland, on the other hand, will be looking to rectify the errors made against Italy and bounce back stronger.

“We made a lot of unforced errors in the match, and we will try to cut down on silly mistakes in the next match. Also, we will change the goalkeeper in the next game,” Poland’s coach Krzysztof Rachwalski had said after the 1-4 loss to Italy.

The Polish girls played much better against the top-ranked South Africa in their opening match. The match that stood goalless at the end of the first half forced the South Africans to change strategy, which helped them scrape through 2-1.