Buenos Aires, Jan 20 (IANS) The Indian women’s hockey team drew their second match against Argentina junior women’s team with a scoreline of 1-1 at Cenard here. In their previous game too, both teams had drawn 2-2.
Having begun Tuesday’s match on an attacking note, equipped by good speed and precision in rotating the ball, India looked for potential openings in the striking circle. Their attempts won them penalty corner in the very first minute of the match. But Gurjit Kaur’s powerful drag was saved by Argentine goalkeeper.
India won another opportunity in the fifth minute when they earned a penalty corner, but Deep Grace Ekka’s shot went wide, missing the net. In the following minutes the home side won three penalty corners in the ninth, 11th and 13th minute. They converted the goal in a retake in the 13th minute taking a 1-0 lead.
While India created plenty of opportunities to score in the second and third quarter, making a number of circle penetrations, they were unable to beat the Argentine defence. India earned four more penalty corners (37th, 43rd, 48th and 58th minutes) in the course of the game and eventually succeeded in the 58th minute when a powerful injection by Navneet Kaur was well received and powerfully struck by skipper Rani.
“Today the quality of play was better and that’s why we are here – to improve in every match. Today players got the chance to show their best and these are players who normally don’t get a chance to make the 18-member squad so it’s good they are able to get international exposure. It is also good for the core group that we are getting to try more players and see how different combinations work,” said chief coach Sjoerd Marijne.
“We created enough opportunities to score more and this is an area we need to keep working on. We have a break of two days before our next game against the Argentina B team and we look forward to the challenge,” he added.
–IANS
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