Hockey World Cup 2023: New Zealand aka the Kiwis undoubtedly are the good boys of the sporting world, but when it comes to giving heartbreaks to the Indian team, they never fail. Be it cricket or hockey, the Indian teams for the past few years have found it extremely difficult to go past the Kiwis. It was yet another World Cup where the men in blue locked horns with the Kiwis, but the result was no different. In the ongoing Hockey World Cup, New Zealand eliminated the Indian team and ended their dream of winning the marquee tournament.
The Indian team made a dominant start by taking a lead of 2-0 and looked all set to qualify for the last eight, but things turned around pretty quickly as the visitors made a comeback that left the Indian outfit stunned. The Kiwis staged a valiant fightback and forced matters into penalties. It was a horrid start for the Indian team as they missed two of their first three attempts. Indian goalie Sreejesh kept his team in the hunt by executing three saves in a row, but India could not survive and were eliminated from the championship. India's head coach Graham Reid has now reacted to India's disastrous FIH Men's World Cup campaign.
After the match Reid said:
For a team that had come into the tournament with hopes of a first podium finish after the 1975 gold, crashing out before the quarterfinals was nothing short of a debacle. This team was good enough to at least reach the quarterfinals, if not the semifinals. But who would have thought that the world number six home side would lose to 12th-ranked New Zealand in the penalty shootout of the crossover match after being ahead by two goals on two occasions? With crores of rupees being spent on the team's training, exposure tours, and support staff salaries, it ought to have done better. Ultimately, it is the lack of execution (in finishing)
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The Indian Head Coach didn't mince words as he termed India's campaign as patchy and inconsistent. Reid also said that the team was overdependent on Harmanpreet and Hardik's injury made matters worse for them. In the Tokyo Olympics, India had a fine drag-flicker in Rupinder Pal Singh along with Harmanpreet, and they scored 10 goals from 31 PCs with a healthy one-third conversion rate.
(Inputs from PTI)
