GOLD COAST: The Indian women’s hockey team will look to put behind their semi-final disappointment as they take on World No. 2 England in the bronze medal play-off in the 21st Commonwealth Games here tomorrow.
The Indian team endured a disheartening 1-0 defeat against hosts Australia in the semi-final yesterday but they will have a chance to redeem themselves when they face England, a team they had defeated 2-1 in a pool A match.
However, it will be a tough encounter as England will also be aiming to finish their campaign on a good note after having lost their semi-final match against New Zealand.
India can take the positives from their performance in the semi-final as they kept a resolute defensive structure.
However, the worrying aspect for the team could be their efforts in front of the opposition’s goal where they were not efficient enough.
England, on the other hand, lost to New Zealand 1-2 in a penalty shoot-out after the scores remained 0-0 after regulation time.
The stand-out performer for the World No. 2 team was their goalkeeper Madeleine Hinch, who made a total of eight saves in the match, including one penalty corner.
Both India and England endured defeats which must be hard to take for the players as they could not manage to progress to the Final match.
But India captain Rani Rampal is determined to make amends by securing the Bronze Medal.
“We are all very disappointed that we could not qualify for the Gold Medal match because it was our target for the Commonwealth Games. But my team can take the positives from their performance against a strong Australian side who were playing in front of their home crowd,” the 23-year-old forward said.
“I felt we had our chances in the match, but we didn’t manage to convert them. However, we need to keep our chins up as we have an important match ahead of us against England. The Bronze Medal match gives us the opportunity to end our campaign on a good note and prepare for the future tournaments with confidence in ourselves,” said Rani. (AGENCIES)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
