HOT WORK: The New Zealand women's hockey team train at the National Stadium in New Delhi. LAWRENCE SMITH/Fairfax MediaWe played two halves against Malaysia on the Stadium pitch, one 25 min. half and one 20 min. half.
We started off fairly well and had most of the play.
After earning a couple of penalty corners, Scott Tupper slotted one between the goalies legs to go up 1-0. We then had a few very good scoring opportunities which we could not put behind the keeper in the goal.
The play then went back and forth a bit before we cashed in on one of our opportunities as Philip Wright received the ball in front of the goalie and quickly got it up and over him into the top of the goal. We let them get back into the game early in the second half when they scored on a quick counter attack to cut the lead in half.
We held it together for the rest of the half until the final minutes when they were given a suspect penalty corner that they converted low stick side. All in all it was not a bad game for us but a very frustrating result that we should have never let get away.
We will learn from our mistakes though and be ready for our opening match against South Africa on Tuesday.
Our post match routine of cooling down and ice bathing was quickly executed before we were off to the Village again for some dinner. As most of us are now adjusted to the jet lag, we will all be hanging out for a couple of hours before we head to bed and prepare for the day to come.
Dave Jameson
Field Hockey Canada media release
