London: Their campaign off to a positive start, an ever-improving India would look to continue their winning momentum when they take on another easy opponent in Canada in their second Pool B match of the Hockey World League Semi-Final on Saturday.
For the sixth-ranked India, Saturday’s match would provide them another golden opportunity to enhance their position in Pool B with their second consecutive win ahead of tough games against arch-rivals Pakistan and fourth-ranked Netherlands.
Just like their opening counter, the Indians are considered as hands down favourites against 11th-ranked Canada, who have some Indian origin players in the squad.
But Roelant Oltmans’ men will have to guard against complacency as a lowly Scotland gave India a run for their money at least in the opening two quarters.
In their tournament opener, the Indians were slow to get off the blocks and an opportunist Scotland utilised it to their advantage to take an early lead which they held on till half time.
But after dressing down from coach Oltmans at the half way stage, the Indians looked more organised and purposeful in the third and fourth quarter and completely dominated the proceedings to take control of the match.
The Indians scored as many as four goals in the third quarter through striker Ramandeep Singh’s double strike, Akashdeep Singh and Harmanpreet Singh to pocket full three points from the encounter.
But come tomorrow, the Indians cannot afford to relax a bit from the onset as they did against Scotland.
A win on Saturday will more or less assure India’s place in the quarterfinals.
Against Scotland, the Indian defence was caught napping at least in the initial stages and Oltmans will be fully aware of the fact especially in the absence of Rupinderpal Singh, who was ruled out of the tournament at the last minute due to a hamstring injury.
The onus would be on Kothajit Singh and Harmanpreet Singh to hold the fort in the backline ahead of important clashes against Pakistan and Netherlands.
The mid-field led by talismanic Sardar Singh and skipper Manpreet looked in great shape while the forwardline too impressed in the opening match.
Canada, on the other hand, will be playing their first match of the tournament and will be going all guns blazing to upset the Indians.
Canada have nothing to lose and they would be hoping to capitalise on India’s lapses to shock their rival early.
While India has had a fair record against Canada, having won their league stage matches in 2015 and 2016 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup with a score of 5-3 and 3-1 respectively, India drew a crucial match against them at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“Though the team is ranked below us, we don’t want to take them lightly. They can come up with a good game and hence it is important for us to stick to the roles assigned by our coach and execute them as planned,” said Manpreet.
On Sunday, India will take on its traditional rival Pakistan against whom the team has enjoyed success in the recent past.
In 2016, India beat Pakistan 3-2 in both league and final match at the Men’s Asian Champions Trophy.
India also won the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup match against Pakistan by a convincing 5-1 margin.
This will be the first encounter this year between India and Pakistan.
“We always look at Pakistan as just another team and we always look at earning those three points from the match to advance in the league stage. They are a good side, but we have had a good start to the tournament. The idea will be to stick to the plans coach draws up before the match against both Canada and Pakistan, bring in more aggression into our game and aim at finishing on top of the table in the league stage,” said Manpreet.
Manpreet further emphasized that the team has no added pressure as they have already qualified to participate at the Odisha Men’s Hockey World League Final Bhubaneswar 2017 this December.
“We play with no pressure. We just want to perform to our potential and enjoy ourselves while we give it our best,” stated the skipper
Meanwhile in the other Pool B match of the day, Netherlands will play Scotland while in Pool A Korea will face China and hosts England will take on Malaysia. (PTI)
