Black Sticks thump India 4-1 in women's hockey international in Pukekohe

[CAD]

Black Sticks women's coach Sean Dancer was impressed with his side's start to their series against India.

New Zealand scored a convincing 4-1 victory in Pukekohe, with goals from Jordan Grant, Olivia Merry, Rachel McCann and Deanna Ritchie.

"I thought it was a really competitive game, especially early on, but we really stepped it up and took control in many aspects," Dancer said.

"We did well up front and that was shown by the number and quality of goals we scored.

All the girls worked hard and put in a good performance today but we can't be complacent, we need to go away and focus on test two on Tuesday night."

Grant opened the scoring in the 13th minute after getting the final touch on a cracking shot at goal from Merry.

The Black Sticks doubled their lead 10 minutes later thanks to a passage of play which saw McCann fire a perfect pass to Merry, who slotted a goal through the keeper's legs.

India responded after the halftime break with Anupa Barla sneaking behind the New Zealand defence to score, but New Zealand extended their lead in the 43rd minute when Grant smacked a shot at goal for McCann to deflect in on the dive.

Ritchie sealed the result in stunning fashion five minutes from fulltime when she put pressure on the Indian fullback and stole the ball before lobbing over the keeper's head.

Source: stuff.co.nz

 

[Tom M]

Bad start, but still 4 more matches to go. All the best team India.

 

[CAD]

Goals weren't an issue for the women's Black Sticks in tonight's second international against India at Pukekohe.

The fifth-ranked New Zealand team flattened India 8-2 at Rosa Birch Park to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series. New Zealand won the first international 4-1 at the same venue on Sunday.

This series is being used as something of a selection exercise by New Zealand coach Mark Hager.

All 25 squad players will have at least three appearances as he looks to prepare a team for the World League semifinals in Brussels next month.

Hager will be liking what he's seeing, considering he's unlikely to play a first-team side until later in the series.

The scoreline blew out in the final quarter as New Zealand rattled in four goals in the last eight minutes.

The last time New Zealand passed eight goals was the 31-0 blowout against Samoa at the Oceania tournament in late 2015, and there was a 12-0 shellacking of Poland a couple of months earlier in Antwerp.

Black Sticks star Stacey Michelsen has had injury issues since returning from last year's Rio Olympics. She put those behind her in grabbing a fine hat-trick and showing some classy touches.

Attacker Sam Harrison snagged two goals with the other three coming from Kirsten Pearce, Maddie Doar and Steph Dickins, the latter two getting their debut international goals.

World No 12 India got goals from Liliana Minz, from a penalty corner in the third quarter and Anupa Barla scored just before New Zealand's late goal burst.

''In the first quarter India probably had the run of most of the play," Black Sticks assistant coach Sean Dancer said.

Source: nzherald