Their campaign passing along smoothly, India will now look to upstage fancied world champions Australia in their last preliminary match of the World league semifinals on Sunday.
India’s show against Australia will go a long way in deciding the final pool positions, with Pakistan staying in the frame after the subcontinental encounter on Friday ended in a 2-2 draw.
India so far have to wins and a draw while Australia have posted victories in all their outings, including a 6-1 drubbing of Pakistan.
India’s new coach Paul van Ass, the former Dutch national coach, is hopeful that his wards will showcase their skills against the best outfit in contemporary hockey.
Australia last year completed a hat-trick of World Cup victories at The Hague and became the first country to win title trice in a row — at Monchengladbach, New Delhi and The Hague.
Fielding several young players here with the focus on testing the junior in top-level competitions and also a spate of injuries, India have the luxury of going into the contest with little at stake.
The Asian Games gold medal in Incheon has already secured India’s passage to the 2016 Olympics, while for several teams the ongoing World league Semifinals are the last chance to qualify for Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic Games.
India’s defence, featuring two young players, will face its stiffest challenge from the fast-overlapping Australian strikers, whose showpiece performance was last year’s 6-1 drubbing of The Netherlands in the final of the World Cup.
India’s strikers have been misfiring a lot. With a little more focused shooting in the closing stages of the match against Pakistan, India could have clinched a late match-winner, but they muffed three scoring chances in the last five minutes.
The draw between India and Pakistan has kept hanging the fate of the pool positions for both nations. Australia’s 4-0 victory over Poland on Friday night kept them at the top of the group standings with maximum nine points.
India have seven points from three matches, while Pakistan are on four points from three games. Only a shock Indian victory can deprive Australia of the top slot, but the second place is still up for grabs. India’s good show against Australia can ensure them the second spot.
Pakistan will seek to post a big win against minnows France to bolster their goal-difference and edge ahead of India if the two are tied on points. live on Star Sports, 7:30 PM
Eves lose 2-4 to Australia
Indian women produced their best performance of the ongoing WHl Semifinals even though they suffered a 2-4 loss to World Cup silver medallists Australia after a gritty fight in their last preliminary league outing.
Australia were served well by their penalty corner shooter Jodie Kenny, who completed a hat-trick of three penalty corner strikes and then added a goal through a penalty stroke conversion at the KHC Dragons Stadium.
India twice rallied to draw parity through goals from Vandana Katariya and Poonam Rani. India’s loss left them at the fourth spot among five teams in Pool B, which was topped by New Zealand, who defeated Belgium 2-0 to complete an all-win record in the league outings.
Australia finished second and Belgium took the third place in the group.
Australia benefited from the penalty corner conversion prowess of Kenny. They took the lead in the second minute from their second penalty corner as Jodie scored with a low drag-flick.
India stunned their rivals to draw parity when Deepika’s firm shot was deflected by diving Katariya into the Australian net. Kenny sent another drag-flick into the boards in the sixth minute to put Australia into the lead again.