Indian team face must-win situation

Sunday. On the contrary,the hosts’ confidence is sky high after registering back-to-back victories in the five-nation tournament. Malaysia scampered past Pakistan 3-2 on Sunday before outplaying Egypt 4-1,and a win against India will seal their place in the final,leaving India,New Zealand and Egypt to slug it out for the other spot. Pakistan have already been ruled out of the summit clash after they slumped to their second successive defeat on Monday.

No option

A win for the Kiwis and a defeat or a draw for India will more or less take last year’s runners-up out of the summit clash equation and coach Harendra Singh admitted it was a desperate situation. “We will continue to play attacking hockey and go for the win. We can’t think about any other option,” he said,on the eve of the match.

The pressure would be on the Dilip Tirkey-led Indian defence which,in the recent past,has faltered time and again in the dying stages of a match,but Harendra said he was more concerned about India’s low rate of penalty corner conversion.

“Definitely it (penalty corner conversion) is a worrying factor. That’s an area we will have to address as we have two world class penalty corner specialists in Sandeep and Dilip (Tirkey) in our team.

“We have to utilise the penalty corners because they are known for man-to-man marking,” the coach said. The Indian forwards will have to improve their finishing quality,which was also a major concern against Egypt.