Kolkata: The Indian women’s hockey team playing their first match of the European tour lost 0-1 to Dutch outfit Ladies Den Bosch in a closely fought encounter at the Den Bosch ground on Friday.
Lieke Hulsken, scored the solitary goal of the match in the 33rd minute of the second half, to bring up the win for the home team.
The Ladies Den Bosch team which started the match consisted of nine regular starters of the Dutch national team. They could have scored as early as in the third minute when they won a penalty corner. But, Indian goalie Rajani Etimarpu came to the rescue, diving full length to prevent the opposition from taking the lead. Rajani had a good match, saving another penalty corner in the 17th minute, until she was taken off at the end of the first half.
Despite numerous attacks from the more stronger home team, the first half ended in a stalemate.
However, the second half saw Lieke Hulsken score from a well assisted pass in the 33rd minute as vice captain Savita, who replaced Rajani as the Indian goalkeeper could do nothing to stop the goal.
The Indian forwards Vandana Katariya and captain Rani Rampal, despite coming close on a couple of occasions could not equalise as the Bosch’s defence held on to the lead, man marking the Indian players to come out as the winners.
The Indian team is set to play three more matches in the preparatory tour of Europe, that includes two matches against Belgium junior men’s team and another match against the Ladies Den Bosch club, ahead of the Asia Cup to be held next month in Japan.
When asked his opinion on the tour, India’s coach Sjoerd Marijne said, “The idea of playing was to toughen our team mentally and also the pace of the game will be much faster. The National Camp was good as we played two matches with the men’s team in Bengaluru every week and the girls have put in a lot of hard work in this camp.”
He added, “Asia Cup is important and in my opinion, at the moment the Indian team is the No.1 side in Asia and there’s no doubt that we will be gunning for the title.”