Kuala Lumpur
India piped Malaysia 1-0 in the fifth and last match to wrap up the 5-match Women’s hockey bi-lateral 4-0 here on Thursday.Navjot Kaur’s fine field goal in the 35th minute turned out to be the winner as Indian girls displayed good defending tactics to hold on to the narrow lead .
India did well to create scoring opportunities with substantial circle entries but could not convert enough goals while penalty corner conversion remained a concern.
“We need to work on converting goals,” stated Indian Team Chief Coach Sjoerd Marijne who was not very pleased with the margin the team defeated Malaysia.
“I am happy with the number of times we entered the opponent’s circle. We created enough opportunities with shots and PCs but we have to keep working on converting in small space,” he said.
Speaking about the tour which saw India win 3-0, 5-0, draw 4-4 1-0, 1-0 the coach said “This tour gave us more insight on how to play against a very defensive team like Malaysia. Also it was good that some of our young players experienced what it takes at international level and this will really help us to create depth in the squad,”
“Winning is fine but what’s more important for me if that we play good, structured hockey. If we tick the right boxes, winning will eventually happen “
On Wednesday in the fourth match of the series India had beaten Malaysia by a solitary goal scored by lalremsiami .
HSB