London: India’s rampaging form would be up against a stiff challenge when they take on World No. 4, the Netherlands in their final Pool B match of the Hockey World League Semifinal, here Tuesday.
India, ranked sixth in the world, are presently atop in Pool B with three wins from as many games, while the Netherlands are placed second with two wins from two games. India in their previous games have defeated Scotland 4-1, Canada 3-0 and Pakistan 7-1.
Captain Manpreet Singh stated the team is improving rapidly in penalty corner conversions.
“It was a very good win for us not because it was against Pakistan but because we did well in the areas that had concerned us,” Manpreet said after the game against Pakistan.
“In our previous tournaments though our statistics in terms of ball possession was very good, and even the number of circle penetrations was encouraging, we were missing goal scoring chances. But now we have overcome that setback with high scoring match against Pakistan. We just want to keep up this momentum,” he added.
The Netherlands, on the other hand, had beaten Pakistan 4-0 before getting the better of Scotland 3-0 in their first two games.
“I am quite pleased with the team’s performance so far but our job is not finished yet. We have to stay upbeat, continue to be aggressive and execute our plans to 100 per cent in all the areas to excel against the Netherlands who also have had a good start to the tournament,” said coach Roelant Oltmans.
Barring a few lapses early in their games, the Indians have been clinical so far in the tournament, controlling the proceedings in each and every match. The performance of India’s forward-line has been outstanding with the likes of Ramandeep Singh, Akashdeep Singh and Talwinder Singh showcasing their brilliance with the stick by scoring some fantastic goals.
The last time the two sides had played was at Rio Olympics which India lost 1-2. Prior to that India had won two consecutive games in 2015 and 2014.
“We don’t want to think about past records. We only want to focus on our match tomorrow (Tuesday) and continue with the good momentum,” Oltmans asserted.
