Adelaide [Australia], May 17 (ANI): The Indian Women’s Hockey Team are all geared as much as tackle hosts Australia on Thursday within the first recreation of their journey Down Under, the place they may play 5 matches from May 18 to May 27 at MATE Stadium in Adelaide.
The staff led by ace goalkeeper Savita and Vice Captained by Deep Grace Ekka will play Australia within the first three video games of the sequence, adopted by two matches towards Australia A. The tour is a part of the Indian staff’s preparations for the upcoming Hangzhou Asian Games 2023, which can happen in September-October this 12 months.
The Indian staff will open their tour with a match towards Australia on May 18 earlier than enjoying back-to-back video games on May 20 and May 21. The guests will then compete towards Australia A on May 25 and May 27. The Australian Women’s Hockey Team is presently ranked third on the earth, whereas the Indian staff is ranked eighth.
Notably, the Indian Women’s Hockey Team left for Adelaide on 14th May and since then they’ve been coaching there to get acclimatized to the situations in Australia. Speaking on the identical, Captain Savita stated, “We are training every day and even under the lights so that the team get used to the field and circumstances in Adelaide as our matches are scheduled to take place in the evening.””We even had our training session this morning, and the team did some gameplay as we are getting ready for our first game tomorrow,” she added.
Meanwhile, Janneke Schopman, the Chief Coach of the Indian Women’s Hockey Team, stated the staff is all geared to play towards Australia.
“Players are excited and ready to take on Australia. The weather is quite nice here. We are feeling good and are ready to show what we’ve been working on in the last couple of weeks,” Schopman stated.
Interestingly, the Indian Women’s Hockey Team defeated Australia 1-0 within the Semi-Finals of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. It was a historic victory for the Indian staff as they competed in solely their third Olympics and certified for the Quarter-Finals for the primary time, whereas Australia have been a three-time gold medallist.
The Indian staff additionally fought exhausting towards Australia within the Commonwealth Games 2022 Semi-Final match in Birmingham, tying the rating at 1-1 on the finish of regulation time. However, Australia gained the penalty shoot-out 3-0 to make it to the Final, which they misplaced to England. Meanwhile, India gained their third/4th place match to take the Bronze medal residence.
India tour of Australia Broadcast Details:India’s tour of Australia shall be telecast reside on DD Sports. While the remainder of the world can view the matches on watch.hockey. In Australia, the matches shall be reside on Fox Sports/Kayo and thru the web platform, StayHockey.
India tour of Australia Schedule:May 18, Thursday: India vs Australia at 14:15 ISTMay 20, Saturday: India vs Australia at 14:15 ISTMay 21, Sunday: India vs Australia at 13:45 ISTMay 25, Thursday: India vs Australia A at 14:15 ISTMay 27, Saturday: India vs Australia A at 14:15 IST. (ANI)