“The girls were determined to give their best to make it a special day for Savita, and they gave their everything. I can’t ask for more than that,” coach Harendra Singh admitted after India’s 4-2 loss to World No. 1 Netherlands in the FIH Hockey Pro League here on Monday.
The Indian women, coming off a morale-boosting win against Germany, played their best game of the competition so far despite the loss, keeping the Dutch busy for long periods and not allowing them the freedom to strike at will. More importantly, the Indians did not sit back defensively, were not awed by the opponents’ reputation and kept trying to move up, finding ways to create an opening, 13 penalty corners a testament to Indian tenacity.
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Locked 1-1 at halftime – itself a surprise, given Netherlands’ domination and India’s struggles – the Dutch came back with a revamped plan, stretching the Indians wide and using the flanks to get into the Indian circle. Joosje Burg, Frederique Matla and Felice Albers constantly wove past the Indian defence to set up goals and while there were just three PCs, the Dutch found ways to wrong-foot the defenders and score from open play.
Albers struck twice, from acute angles on either side of the goal while Fay van der Elst struck once, while Udita got both of India’s goals through PCs. In fact, India could have struck a couple of goals more but for the Dutch goalkeeper Anne Veenendaal, who brought off several saves in one-on-one situations. At the other end, both Savita Punia and Bichu Devi did well to deny the Dutch but there was only so much they could do.
The men, however, failed to maintain their winning momentum, going down 3-2 to England, wasting eight PCs and unable to find a way past goalkeeper James Mazarelo, who kept out everything the Indians threw at him. Abhishek and Gurjant tried from open play, Harmanpreet, Jugraj and Nilam Xess from PCs, but nothing could get past Mazarelo. Sam Ward struck twice for the winner, taking full advantage of a lethargic Indian defence.
The German men, recovering from their narrow loss to India, thrashed Ireland 8-2, scoring twice in each quarter with seven different players getting their names on the scoresheet.
The results:
Men: Germany 8 (Thies Prinz 7, Michel Struthoff 10, 59, Paul-Philipp Kaufmann 28, Raphael Hartkopf 30, Henrik Mertgens 42, Benedikt Schwarzhaupt 44, Gonzalo Peillat 56) bt Ireland 2 (Matthew Nelson 27, Peter McKibbin 29), England 3(Jacob Payton 15, Sam Ward 19, 29) bt India 2 (Abhishek 18, Hardik Singh 39)
Women: Netherlands 4 (Emma Reijnen 7, Felice Albers 34, 47, Fay van der Elst 40) bt India 2 (Udita 18, 42).