The Indian Women's Hockey team will be looking to making a big statement in the Hockey World League semi-finals, starting Saturday, July 8 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The first crunching challenge of the competition sees the Indian eves face off against the hosts.
India are grouped in Pool B of the competition alongside South Africa, USA, Chile and Argentina. Pool A features England, Japan, Ireland, Germany and Poland.
The top four sides from each pool progress to the next round. It is a hard and long battle, but can the Indian eves show the grit and nerves of steel?
That definitely needs to be seen.
The India women's hockey team are entering the match at the back of two practice matches against England and Ireland.
"The mood in the team is quite upbeat ahead of our first match. South Africa is ranked around us (No.13 in the world) and I feel we have improved a lot over the past year and are mentally a tougher team than we were before," mentioned captain Rani Rampal on the eve of the game.
"I am quite confident we will get off to a good start and then take it match-by-match. First goal here is to make it to the Quarter-Finals," she added.
India women's hockey team squad: Savita, Rajani Etimarpu; Deep Grace Ekka, Sunita Lakra, Gurjit Kaur, Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam (Vice Captain), Monika; Renuka Yadav, Nikki Pradhan, Namita Toppo, Navjot Kaur, Ritu Rani, Lilima Minz; Reena Khokhar, Rani (Captain), Vandana Katariya, Anupa Barla, Preeti Dubey.
Match schedule
- Date: July 8
- Time: 9:30 pm IST
Where to watch live (India)
TV - Star Sports 1/HD.
Live stream - Hotstar
Live score - Twitter
