India suffer 1-2 loss to New Zealand in women's hockey

Auckland, Jan 27 (IANS) The Indian women's hockey team lost 1-2 to New Zealand in their hard-fought match of the ongoing tour on Monday.It was New Zealand who were quick to get off to an attacking start as they created a penalty corner early in the first quarter. The opportunity was brilliantly converted by Megan Hull in the third minute of the match. India overcame this early setback with a penalty corner created in the dying minutes of the first quarter. It was young Salima Tete who ensured India equalised the score 1-1. Though India continued to play on par with New Zealand in the following quarters and denied the hosts potential shots on goal, a defensive error in the four quarter saw them concede a penalty stroke. Megan Hull made no mistake in finding the net to put the hosts ahead by a 2-1 scoreline."Today, we created enough scoring opportunities, but we were not productive enough. New Zealand was very successful in the little changes they brought into the match compared to our first game and they executed them well," said head coach Sjoerd Marijne after the match. "It is not about how many opportunities you create but how effective you are. New Zealand were stronger than the first match today and in the beginning we were struggling with that. But after the 1st quarter, we played much better," "We created eight shots on goal and four penalty corners today, we are definitely working on being more effective in the coming matches," he added.The Indian eves had a good start in the New Zealand Tour with a 4-0 win against the New Zealand Development squad in their first match. India will now take on New Zealand in their next match on Wednesday.
--IANS aak/dpb