Mood in the team is fine at the moment, says Jharkhand’s Nikki Pradhan

World Cup. After two draws and one defeat in the group stage, they went down to Spain in the crossovers to go out of medal contention. In the end, they did end the tournament on a high though as they beat Japan and Canada in the classification matches to finish ninth overall in the standings.

While finishing and PC conversion let the team down, their defensive show was quite good except in the match against New Zealand where they let in four goals. Other than that, India let in just one goal each against China, England, Spain, Japan and Canada. They also did really well as far as conceding penalty corners is concerned.

Savita & Co conceded a total of just 15 PCs, at an average of less than three per match. And then there was Savita in front of the goal who made numerous saves — some of them quite extraordinary. The players are now looking to carry their good defensive show forward into the Birmingham Commonwealth Games where they have been clubbed in Pool A with hosts England, Canada, Wales and Ghana.

“Our defence was quite well during the World Cup. Earlier we used to give away a lot of penalty corners. But this time, we did all that very well including the counters,” said defender Nikki Pradhan during a virtual press conference on Tuesday.

Looking back at the WC, she rued the lack of goals, but one would be glad to know that the players have brushed off the disappointment and are focused on their next assignment. “Our mood is fine at the moment. We played attacking hockey; our passing was also good.

It’s just that we couldn’t score the goals. We will now look at videos and do all the needful to sort these things,” added Nikki, who hails from Jharkhand’s Khunti district. Apart from the team’s defensive showing, there