India Vs New Zealand Hockey World Cup 2023: New Zealand will face Belgium on 24 January in the quarter-finals.
Image Credit source: Hockey India
Hockey World Cup 2023: The Indian team is out of the Hockey World Cup. Tournament hosts India defeated New Zealand 5-4 in the penalty shoot-out in a thrilling cross-over encounter to reach the quarter-finals. The match was tied 3-3 till the scheduled time, after which the penalty shoot-out also did not result in the initial 5-5 strokes. After this, both the teams lost their chances of victory in Sudden Death, but in the end, New Zealand registered a victory and showed India the way out of the World Cup in front of its fans, at its home. New Zealand will face defending champions Belgium in the quarter-finals on January 24.
Initially trailing 2-0 and then 3-1, the Kiwi team made a tremendous comeback and equalized the score at 3-3, after which the penalty shootout took place. Captain Harmanpreet Singh and Rajkumar scored the first two goals for India here but Abhishek and Shamsher missed their strokes. Here New Zealand took a 3-2 lead. In such a situation, there was a great need of star goalkeeper Sreejesh. Sreejesh saved New Zealand’s last two strokes while Sukhjeet scored India’s last goal to level the score at 3-3.
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India failed in sudden death
Sudden death started from here i.e. 1-1 stroke. Sreejesh saved New Zealand’s very first shot but during this he got injured and was ruled out of the match. India had a chance to win the match by scoring a goal here but Harmanpreet missed it. Even after this, both the teams failed to win in the next two shots. In the end, New Zealand scored in the 17th stroke of the shoot-out, while India’s Shamsher could not score in the 18th stroke and the Kiwi team won the match.
India’s game in the first half
India took an attacking approach from the first quarter itself and made some attacks but like in the previous matches of the tournament, the finishing touch failed once again. In the second quarter, however, Team India managed to break through the Kiwi defence. Lalit Upadhyay scored the first goal for India. In the middle of the field, Akashdeep Singh snatched the ball with a good tackle and gave a long pass to Shamsher. Shamsher passed inside the D to Lalit, who made no mistake in slotting it through.
Within no time, India got a penalty corner and the team that lost the early PC got success this time. Harmanpreet’s shot was saved by New Zealand but Sukhjeet scored on the rebound to make it 2-0. However, New Zealand scored a goal in the last minute of the quarter.
Tremendous action in the third quarter as well
In the third quarter too, both the teams attacked strongly. India once again used the penalty corner as a weapon, but this time Varun took the stroke in place of captain Harmanpreet and his direct shot went between the legs of the Kiwi goalkeeper. This increased India’s lead to 3-1. However, the New Zealand team, which lost possession easily in the opening minutes, slowly began to find their rhythm and grip in the match and this showed in the form of increased attacks on the Indian goal and at the end of the quarter, they also scored a second goal.
return to new zealand
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Kiwi team completed the comeback by scoring their third goal and put India in trouble. In the last 10 minutes, New Zealand’s attack became more intense and goalkeeper Krishna Bahadur Pathak saved India from lagging behind with two excellent saves in a row. Meanwhile a New Zealand player was shown a yellow card and the team was on the field with 10 players but India could not take advantage of it. On the contrary, New Zealand attacked and scored a goal in the very last second, but Pathak defended again and the stipulated time ended with a score of 3-3.