By IANS,
New Delhi : India came close to botching up an easy match but recovered in time to beat Canada 3-0 to finish overall fifth in the women’s hockey competition of the Commonwealth Games here Monday.
After going ahead in the 18th minute when Ritu Rani drove home a pass from Chanchan Devi, India survived some anxious moments before scoring twice more in the last four minutes.
Chanchan Devi scored off a diagonal ball from Saba Anjum who went on to flick home seconds from close to complete India’s campaign.
Canada had their chances, but failed to convert them, much to India’s relief as the home players seemed to struggle to keep their focus on the match.
“It has been difficult to have the girls refocus on today’s match after what all happened against South Africa, but the girls showed a lot of character to bounce back,” said coach Sandeep Somesh.
He was referring to the gross miscalculation of the winning margin against South Africa in the concluding league match to qualify for the semi-finals. The Indian team thought it needed to win by a seven-goal margin when in fact it was only by four.
“That apart, Australia was the only team to beat us and in this respect, I am quite happy at our overall performance and we go to Asian Games next month with a lot of confidence,” Somesh said.
Head coach of the Canadian team Louis Mendonca said his team had targeted a fifth place finish and in this context, was disappointed that they eventually ended up sixth.