The Indian men’s hockey team will look for at-least a draw if not a win, when they take on hosts Netherlands in their final round robin match of the Champions Trophy hockey tournament on saturday.
Placed second on the table with seven points after two victories, one loss and a draw against Belgium, all India will need is another tie to reach the final for a second consecutive time.
Meanwhile, defending champions Australia lead the standings with 10 points and have already secured a berth in the summit clash at Breda on Sunday.
But India will require a minimum draw to guarantee their place, in what can be a repeat of last year’s Champions Trophy Final in London. The match in 2016 had ended in a goalless draw but Australia won 3-1 in the shootouts after Sannuvanda Uthappa, S.V. Sunil and Surender Kumar had missed from the spot.
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Netherlands on the other-hand, face a must-win situation and only a victory can ensure them a place in the final. India though will favour their chances after losing just once in four matches.
Playing under new coach Harendra Singh, India went off to flying start in the campaign thrashing arch-rivals Pakistan 4-0 in their opener, before overcoming the second ranked Argentina 2-1 in their next game.
The eight-time Olympic Champions however slumped to a 2-3 loss against world champions Australia and then were held to 1-1 draw by Belgium yesterday night. India had conceded late goals in both the matches.
Going into the encounter against Netherlands, the ‘Men in Blue‘ will miss experienced forward Ramandeep Singh, who suffered a injury in their last match against Belgium. But that should not be a worry for coach Harendra with the likes of Mandeep Singh, Dilpreet Singh and Lalit Upadhayay performing well.
What will however worry him is their penalty-corner conversion rate. In the four matches that India have played so far in the tournament, they have converted just three penalty-corners with Harmanpreet Singh converting all three and while they played extremely well, the loss to Australia in the final last year in penalties, will certainly haunt coach Harendra, who will look to address the issue this time around.
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Meanwhile in the other match on Saturday, Australia take on defending Olympic Champions Argentina in a dead-rubber clash