Women’s hockey World Cup: India goes down fighting to Netherlands, suffers first loss

There was an orange wave sweeping the stands as the Wagener Stadion was bathed in the summer sunlight, well past the Friday evening pushback.

Yibbi Jansen, the Netherlands’ lethal drag-flicker, scored her seventh goal of the World Cup to put the host 1-0 up after just 83 seconds. The home supporters were anticipating a blue wave on the turf with India’s new colours forcing the Dutch to switch to their away uniform. But India resisted in a hard-fought 2-0 loss in the second round of the tournament.

The win sent the three-time defending champion into the semifinals while India sits fourth in the standings. But the 1-1 draw between Australia and China, earlier in the day, left the door still open for India to challenge for a spot in the semifinals.

After being pushed to the limit just over 24 hours ago, the Indian team struggled to get out of its own half as passes went astray or solo runs ended in cul-de-sacs against the Dutch’s full-court press. India withstood two more penalty corners from the stick of Jansen with Bichu Devi making a block before another drag-push struck the post.

India grew in confidence with neat passing moves but Salima Tete blazed over and Navneet Kaur flashed wide. Deepika had two PCs but were shut out by the Netherlands’ defence.

After the break, India had a glorious chance to go level from a counter-attack but Sunelita Toppo’s tame effort was saved by Anne Veenendaal. Against the world’s best, goal-scoring chances are hard to come by and soon after, the Netherlands let it know. Frederique Matla beat Ishika Chaudhary on the line with a drag-flick to double the advantage.

Exhaustion finally caught up with Sjoerd Marijne’s women as they struggled to hold on to possession with unforced errors. Freeke Moes threatened to widen the margin when she forced Savita Punia into a save from close range before her rebound came off the post.

The mood at the final hooter wasn’t one of despair for the Indian women after suffering their first loss of the campaign as they will know this isn’t the end.

The result:

Netherlands 2 (Jansen 2-pc, Matla 37-pc) bt India 0.