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The Indian women's hockey team went down 3-4 to New Zealand in the last Pool B league match of the ongoing FIH Women's World Cup.
A win over New Zealand would have helped the Savita Punia-led team progress to the quarter-finals. However, this loss now means India will play in a cross-over match (pre-quarterfinals) against Spain before advancing to the quarters to play Australia.
The India vs Spain match will take place on July 10, Sunday. Spain beat Korea 4-1 to take second place in Pool C in the ongoing World Cup.
The Savita Punia-led team fought till the end and did not let the intensity drop. Although they were trailing New Zealand, the Indians were always on the edge of the opponent's circle. A strong New Zealand defense was tough to breach.
Plenty of positives too from the ongoing World Cup campaign
There were plenty of takeaways from the match. India's penalty corner conversion rate in the match was poor. They had 15 chances and could only convert one of them.
However, New Zealand got just five penalty corner chances, speaking volumes of how agile and compact the Indian defense was. However, out of the five, New Zealand converted three.
India had 28 circle penetrations as opposed to New Zealand's 14. The Savita Punia-led team had 11 shots on goal and could only score two off it.
It is also another area of concern chief coach Janneke Schopman and captain Savita Punia will be wary of going into the next stage.
"I am proud of our fight as we worked really hard to stay in the game. Unfortunately, we made some defensive mistakes and New Zealand were very clinical in their finish," coach Schopman said after the match.
What the India vs New Zealand match showed was the ability of the Indian team to stay in the hunt till the hooter. It is this attitude that the Indian team should take forward into the knock-outs and finish the World Cup on a high.
"There are a lot of things to learn from this game but I have seen glimpses of what we can do. Especially, our performance in the second half showed that we can play some good hockey," Schopman added.
As the Indian team walked out teary-eyed after their match against New Zealand, they would know that they have a chance to live another day.
