BENGALURU: Even as the men's hockey team has had an identity crisis of sorts at the World Cup, the women's side has soared. It was visible on Thursday as well, as Salima Tete & Co rounded out their obligations with a commanding 3-1 win over Germany to finish fifth at the event in Netherlands and Belgium.
When the side arrived at the quadrennial bash over a few weeks ago, they would gladly have accepted the fifth place finish. They have completely outperformed their rankings (World No. 9) as well as pre-tournament predictions. They weren't even odds on to advance into the latter stages but they did so at the expense of England after a gritty 0-0 draw in their final pool stage game.
In fact, out of their six games, they lost only once — a 2-0 defeat to the hosts, the Netherlands, one of the best teams the sport has ever seen.
On a beautiful afternoon at the Wagener Stadium in Amstelveen, the Indian defensive line stayed compact and suffocated the European outfit over the first two quarters. They used that as a platform to launch numerous raids into opposition territory and once the goals started flowing — they had last netted on August 18 against South Africa — it came like London buses.
One became two and two very quickly became a third as they scored three in roughly as many minutes thanks to a brace from Navneet Kaur. It was Ishika, though, who started the scoring, a well-worked field goal before the forward dinked it over the onrushing keeper. Navneet, one of the many success stories for the women's team at this tournament, added a second from a penalty corner before the second via a field goal a minute into the fourth quarter.
From the perspective of the World Cup, the fifth place finish is their best at this event in over 50 years. From a medium-term perspective, though, this shows that Sjoerd Marijne, parachuted in as coach late last year, is again working his magic with the side. The challenge now is to carry this momentum to the Asian Games where China will be the side to beat.
However, India, the best Asian side at the World Cup, have belief, form and now know they can live with China, the reigning Olympic silver-medallist, for an hour.
India's results at WC
vs China 2-2 (Pool D)
vs South Africa 6-1 (Pool D)
vs England 0-0 (Pool D)
vs Netherlands 0-2 (Second pool stage)
vs Australia 0-0 (Second pool stage)
vs Germany 3-1 (5th-6th place)