Poor finishing, but India outplay Italy

Though the Indian women scored an emphatic win over Italy, the home team missed several scoring opportunities that came their way.

Team coach MK Kaushik admitted after the contest that ‘‘the players should have been more accurate in taking penalty corners.” The team missed at least eight penalty corners – three of which came in the first session. The eventual winners sounded the board in the opening minutes when Jasjeet Kaur beat the rival keeper. She was again on target in the 52nd minute and her third and the team’s last goal came in the dying minutes of the encounter. Saba Anjum scored the other two goals (62nd, 65th minutes).

With two wins and six points in their pocket, India could hope of making it to the podium.

In the other league match, defending champions Australia kept the cards close to their chest and preferred to play safe instead of going all out for a win. “We hope to be more organised in our next match,” was all the team coach Frank Murray said of the missed opportunity. The Aussies missed 13 penalty corners and one penalty stroke.

On the other hand, the new-look Kiwis, who are taking this tournament as a build-up for their World Cup qualifying competition, were quite impressive, particularly in their attack. The team earned as many as four penalty corners in the fag end of the match but all went abbegging.

Monday’s matches: Italy vs New Zealand, 1 pm; Australia vs Malaysia,3 pm.