Amstelveen

The Indian women's hockey team put up a gritty performance against New Zealand in their Pool B match but went down fighting 3-4 at the FIH Hockey World Cup 2022 in a late Thursday night game.

However, the Savita Punia-led India team is still in contention for a spot in the quarterfinal as they finished third in their pool.

India opened their account with a Vandana Katariya goal in the 4^th minute of the match.

For the Kiwis, Olivia Merry converted a penalty corner in the 12th minute to draw parity. Tessa Jopp put New Zealand ahead in the 29^th minute before Francis Davies converted a penalty corner in the 32^nd minute to extend the lead to 3-1.

India reduced the margin through Lalremsiami in the 44^th minute. But then Olivia Merry converted another penalty corner to once again extend New Zealand’s lead to 4-2. Though India managed to reduce the margin through a Gurjit Kaur penalty corner goal in the 59^th minute it wasn’t good enough for India to take any points from the match.

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Despite losing India managed a place in the crossovers because of a better goal difference over China. They will now face Spain on Sunday for a place in the quarter-finals.