Hastings (New Zealand), April 13 (IANS) The Indian women’s hockey team’s hopes of ending its two-match losing run face a big challenge as it takes on Australia in the Hawke’s Bay Cup at the Hastings Sports Park here on Tuesday.
India have lost to China and the United States in their first two matches of Pool A in the eight-nation tournament. Although all the teams will automatically qualify for the quarter-finals, a victory against world No.3 Australia, will give a lot of confidence to world No.13 India.
“We have a strong team with players who are determined to come back tough for tomorrow’s game,” India’s high performance director Roelant Oltmans said in a release on Monday.
“Though we lost the matches against China and USA, the girls are taking it in a positive way and working hard for the battle tomorrow to open the victory account.
“The opponents too are strong players, but we hope to get the game in our favour.”
It will be an interesting game to watch as the teams have not clashed recently hence they will have to work on their strategies solely by watching each other’s videos.
Australia have played two draws and will also consider this battle as an opportunity to open their victory account.
The tournament is offering the teams the chance to prepare themselves for the Hockey World League (HWL) Semi-Final. World hockey governing body, FIH, conducts two HWL Semis and the top three teams in each of them will qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
“We are not demoralised with the losses, but are taking them as a lesson to improve and work on our mistakes,” Indian skipper Ritu Rani said.
“We are taking the loss as a chance to know our loopholes and work on them with a long-term goal for the HWL Semi-Final,” the centre-half added.
“Australia is a strong team and we are prepared to give them a tough competition to position ourselves as better in the pool standings.”
Even if India have lost both the matches, Anuradha Devi Thokchom’s performance has been a good sign. Anuradha struck a brace against the US and a goal against China and the Indian team management will be hoping that others also fire.