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FIH World Cup: India Women qualify for second round after goalless draw with England
England Women wasted as many as 11 penalty corners. India only needed a point to stay in the hunt.
The Indian women's hockey team qualified for the second round of the Women's Hockey World Cup after playing out a goalless draw against England in their final Pool D match in the Netherlands on Thursday.
The draw earned India one point, taking their tally to five and helping them finish second in the pool behind China to secure a place in the next round. India had begun their World Cup campaign with a 2-2 draw against China before recording a historic 6-1 victory over South Africa. China finished on top of the pool with seven points after recording two wins and a draw.
A draw was enough for India to progress to the next stage. Despite making a positive start in the first half, India fell back deep into defence as the match progressed, allowing England to dominate the attack.
England earned 11 penalty corners but failed to convert any of them, with India's compact defence and crowded circle frustrating the hosts throughout the contest.
Team India did well in the first couple of quarters and threw a big scare into the opposition team. They were very good on the ball, if truth be told. England looked helpless in those two quarters. But despite earning many penalty corners, the Indians' conversion was very poor. They earned six penalty corners in all. Luckily for India, England were worse with their conversion. They earned almost double but were extremely poor with their execution. One has to say in the end that the team from the subcontinent was very lucky with the result. There wasn't a single parameter in which they were not upstaged by England, including ball possession. Other than their defensive performance in the box, they can't be proud of anything else.
But the captain was happy!
India captain Salima Tete, however, was happy with the result. After the match, she said the team gave the contest its all. She was quite satisfied with the defensive work of the team. In Phase 2, the quality of opposition is going to increase manifold, and there, they can't afford to have a similar game. Tete concluded the team was ready to fight in the next round, knowing very well that they were going to meet some of the big powerhouses of the hockey world. The next phase is going to kick off from tomorrow. After the defeat, the English team now heads to the classification groups.
