New Delhi, April 21 (IANS) Indian women’s team captain Ritu Rani on Tuesday said that her squad drew a lot of positives from the recently concluded Hawke’s Bay Cup and are already looking forward to the Hockey World League Semi-final slated in June.
India finished seventh out of eight teams in Hastings, New Zealand. Though the team did not live up to its potential, they delivered some notable performances. They held World No.2 Australia to a 0-0 draw and also managed to beat higher seeded Japan 3-2 in the 7-8th position match.
“We have come back with many positives along with loopholes and weaknesses. We will go back to the drawing board and chalk out a plan on how to build on our strengths which will help take care of the weak areas. We need to work on converting those half chances through better ball possession,” said Ritu.
Hockey India (HI) Director High Performance Roelant Oltmans, who was accompanying the team said: “While the team had to settle for the seventh, we have drawn some very encouraging moments which are the strengths of the girls as a team and which we have to work upon before the Hockey World League in June. They played against the top ranked teams and the way they countered the opponents left many astonished.”