India suffered a heartbreak in the women’s hockey semi-final against Australia after Women in Yellow prevailed in a thrilling match by 3-0 in the penalty shootout following the 1-1 scoreline after the four quarters. However, what happened at the start of the shootout has become a huge cause of debate while many slamming the hockey federation for recklessness in a big game like a semi-final of a massive event such as the Commonwealth Games.
Australian player Ambrosia Malone took the first penalty for her side and failed to find the net as Indian captain Savita Punia made an easy save. As soon as the Indian striker Lalremsiami came for her strike, the umpires communicated that the clock didn’t start and the shootout would start again which meant Malone came for her shot again and scored this time.
It went downhill for India since then as they weren’t able to score even once after that and not a single save from Punia as well. Indian team coach Janneke Schopman suggested that it did play in the players’ minds and she was frustrated as Australian team surely wasn’t complaining as they got a chance to make amends after a failed attempt.
“I just don’t understand. Australia weren’t complaining… I don’t think even the officials understood what happened… it’s not an excuse but that didn’t help us for sure.
“It is tough and I think we’re trying as coaches to be able to (understand) but that is life. It is emotional and there was so much at stake. Of course, they need to not be influenced by it, but they’re also humans and it did play a role. They’re (players) sad and they should be sad. We fought really hard and were very close to playing in the final. They’ll be sad and tomorrow’s a new day and we’ll figure out what the plan will be for the next game,” she said.
Captain Savita Punia was trying hard to make sense of all that while being in tears after the match saying that these decisions are tough to take but they have to move on quickly from that as they have a bronze medal match to play on Sunday against New Zealand.
Tough to take [the loss], especially [after what happened] in the first stroke of the shootout. Such decisions are tough to take but it’s part of sport and you have to accept it. The Australian team is among the top teams and we trailed and then made it 1-1 and fought till the last minute…we’d decided before the match that we would fight till the very end and the girls did just that. I am very proud.
“Will be difficult to motivate them. We have worked hard and know the bronze medal match is very important for us. But as a captain and as a senior player, it is my duty [to motivate them]. We will make a comeback,” Punia added.
International Hockey Federation (FIH) meanwhile has apologised for the umpiring error and added that the incident will be reviewed thoroughly.
“In the semi-final match of @birminghamcg22 Commonwealth Games between Australia and India (Women), the penalty shootout started mistakenly too early (the clock was not yet ready to operate), for which we apologise.
“The process in place for such situations is that the penalty shootout has to be retaken, which was done. This incident will be thoroughly reviewed by the FIH in order to avoid any similar issues in the future,” FIH said in a series of tweets.
This is not the first time that India have been on the receiving end of the clock not starting as the men’s time had conceded a penalty corner against New Zealand when time was stopped for 15 seconds but thankfully for India the Men in Black weren’t able to utilise it and Manpreet Singh-led side won the bronze medal match in Tokyo Olympics last year.
