India pay the price for errors, lose to Dutch in last pool game

SAME OLD STORY Ramandeep and SV Sunil in the forward line had the pace to fox the Dutch in the final third. But their profligacy up front hardly helped the team

RAIPUR: You stick to the basics, you reap the rewards.

The Netherlands did that on Monday while hosts India erred in trapping the ball, maintaining team structure and making the correct final pass.

The Dutch emerged 3-1 winners in their last Pool B match in the Hockey World League here. Mink van der Weerden (30th minute), Mirco Pruijser (43th) and Roel Bovendeert (54th minute) scored for The Netherlands while Chinglensana Singh Kangujam got the lone consolation for India as the hosts finished at the bottom of the pool with just one point from the draw against Germany.

The basics are taught at the elementary level and faults can’t be rectified at the international level. India’s high performance director and chief coach Roelant Oltmans referred to these fault lines after the match.

“In our circle penetration, you should get more out of it. One of the things is the final pass. If you enter the circle at high speed and you don’t take the time to give the right final player (then it is of no use).

“If you see how Holland (the Netherlands) scored their last goal, it was the right final pass (which made it possible). That is one of the things when you talk about development where you can’t start learning at a certain level. It’s difficult to de-learn things,” he added. It wasn’t that India played badly. They were as good as against Germany but committed more errors.

They created a number of chances but mistakes in the final moments made their efforts ineffective. The hosts started superbly as they created a number of chances in the first quarter.

With Ramandeep and SV Sunil in the forward line, they had the pace to fox the Dutch in the final third. But both forwards also made mistakes and India could not capitalise on their efforts.

THEY CREATED A NUMBER OF CHANCES BUT MISTAKES IN THE FINAL MOMENTS MADE THEIR EFFORTS INEFFECTIVE.

GETTY India have not won any of their three group matches at the Hockey World League Finals.