India vs Australia at Women’s Hockey World Cup. (Pic credit: Hockey India)
Speaking ahead of the match, Marijne had said, “We need to score. That’s the difference compared to the two previous matches. And I agree with you. It’s good how we’re defending, but yeah, now we need to execute. We need to execute PCs and also field goals. In the end, though, it did not matter as Australia held on for the draw to finish second in the pool, ahead of China and India. All three teams finished on two points, but Australia went through on goal difference and goals scored.
However, that execution never came. India gave away the ball too easily, made individual errors, struggled to create chances and lacked the discipline inside the D needed to find the winning goal. They found the back of the net within the first two minutes, but the goal was disallowed following a review. They scored again at the beginning of the fourth quarter, only for that goal to be ruled out as well.