Bhubaneswar, April 7: The Netherlands are the reigning champions at the Olympics, Women’s FIH Pro League and World Cup. Therefore even their ‘B’ team will pose a big challenge for India women’s team when they face-off in an FIH Pro League doubleheader here on Friday and Saturday.
Though the Indian team has improved a lot in recent times and performed brilliantly to finish fourth in the Tokyo Olympics, the Dutch will still start the favourite in the upcoming matches at the Kalinga Stadium despite leaving out the group that won them gold at the Tokyo Olympics last year.
The Netherlands, who will be playing in India for the first time, are currently leading the FIH Pro League standings with 17 points from six matches. They have registered five outright wins and one in the shoot-out. India, on the other hand, have 12 points from six matches, the same as Argentina but are placed fourth behind as they have three outright wins as compared to four for the South Americans. They also have an inferior goal difference – seven as against 10 for Argentina.
The matches on Friday and Saturday present India an opportunity to capitalise on their superior experience and home conditions against the World No. 1 team.
The last time the two teams faced each other was during a preliminary stage match at the Tokyo Olympics in which India lost 1-5.
India began their campaign with wins against China (7-1 and 2-1) in Muscat followed by a 2-1 win and a 3-4 loss against Spain in February 2022 at home and in their last outing, they lost 1-1 (1-2 SO) and 1-1 (3-0 SO) win against Germany. (IANS)
