The FIH Women’s World Cup did not go as expected for the Indian women’s hockey team but striker Navneet Kaur on Thursday said the side will look to better its performance at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. India finished ninth in the World Cup.
The team began the campaign with a 1-1 draw against England. In its next match, it was held to a 1-1 draw by China. India’s final group stage match ended in a 3-4 defeat to New Zealand.
India had a chance to go to the quarterfinals despite finishing third in the group stage. However, they missed out on the opportunity to finish in the top 8 after a 0-1 loss to Spain.
Speaking about India’s loss to Spain, Navneet said, “When we lost the match against Spain, we were utterly disappointed but knew we had to quickly put that match behind us and focus on the upcoming games against Canada and Japan.
“The only thing we wanted was to register good wins against these two teams and finish our World Cup campaign on a positive note,” she continued.
In their 9th-16th place game, India defeated Canada 2-3 via shootout after the game was tied at 1-1 at the end of regulation time.
Following that, India defeated Japan 3-1 in the 9th-12th place match on Wednesday night at the Estadi Olimpic de Terrassa to finish ninth in the final standings.
“I feel we could have done even better against Canada and not let the match go into a shootout. But we missed many chances in the circle. Against Japan, it was important we improvised our chances and we pushed them from the word go,” Navneet further said. India will kick off their CWG campaign against Ghana on July 29.
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