FIH Hockey Women's World Cup: Indian team hopes to negate New Zealand's counter-attacks in must-win game

The Indian women's hockey team find themselves in a precarious situation at the ongoing FIH Women's World Cup in Amstelveen. After a stalemate in their first two matches against England and China, the Savita Punia-led team will need to win their third league match against New Zealand to progress to the quarter-finals.

Thursday's match will be the first time India and New Zealand will be meeting each other in five years. The two teams last met in May 2017, when India traveled to New Zealand to play Test matches. In five games, the Indian hockey team were unable to register even a single win.

Read: FIH Women's World Cup 2022: India squad, India vs New Zealand schedule, timings, live streaming details

In the ongoing World Cup, New Zealand top Pool B with four points from two games. India are third, behind China, with two points from two games.

Indian hockey team to up the ante against New Zealand

Speaking on their upcoming match against New Zealand, vice-captain Deep Grace Ekka said although it will be a tough game, the Indian team is targeting a win.

"New Zealand have been in good form in this tournament so far. We will be watching videos to study the opposition and hope to be prepared going into the contest. It will be a tough game, but we hope we can get a win in our corner to climb up in the pool table," she said.

Indian team's chief coach Janneke Schopman said New Zealand will be a tough opponent, and gave a glimpse of the team's strategies going into the match.

"New Zealand will be a tough team to play. They are very dangerous in their counterattack and we will have to be ready for that, on the ball we have to play to our strengths," she said.

The match will be played on July 7 at 11 pm (IST). It will be telecast live on Star Sports 1 and a live stream will be made available on Disney + Hotstar.