This was not our greatest efficiency, admits India captain Harmanpreet Singh

India captain Harmanpreet Singh on Thursday admitted that they have been under par and will have finished a lot better as the house staff defeated a lowly Wales 4-2 to fail to prime its pool and qualify instantly for the quarterfinals of the FIH Men’s World Cup.

India can nonetheless qualify for the quarterfinals in the event that they beat New Zealand of their crossover match on Sunday.

“We are not satisfied with this win. This was not our best performance and we could have done better,” Harmanpreet stated on the post-match press convention.

Needing to win by a margin of eight objectives to instantly qualify for the quarterfinals, India didn’t dwell as much as the expectations as they completed second in Pool D behind England.

Both India and England ended their group engagements on seven factors every after successful two matches and drawing one however the European facet topped Pool D on the idea of superior purpose distinction.

England, who had outclassed Spain 4-0 within the earlier Pool D match right here, have a greater purpose distinction of plus 9 as in opposition to India’s 4.

When two groups are on similar factors and gained equal variety of matches, the rating is determined by purpose distinction.

“We created chances but somehow we could not score too many goals. We hope to do better against New Zealand,” the captain, who scored his first purpose from a penalty nook, added.

Head coach Graham Reid rued the shortage of ending by the forwards, which continued from their drawn match in opposition to England on January 15.

“We played well in patches and Wales defended well. They (Wales) are a good team and if you give chances to them, they will score. England had also made our job tougher,” Reid stated, as England’s 4-0 win over Spain put India below strain.

“I thought we still made a lot of chances but the finishing was still lacking which was the most disappointing part. Wales defended well. There is no easy way to gold medal in this World Cup and every team is different. There were positives we can take from today’s match.” The Australian stated New Zealand is not going to be simple opponents within the crossover match as India had came upon within the two FIH Pro League matches right here final 12 months.

“The first match (of Pro League) was a tough one while the second one was a bit easier. New Zealand will not be easy opponents,” Reid stated.

India had crushed New Zealand 4-3 within the first match and 7-4 within the reverse recreation of the Pro League on October 28 and November 4 final 12 months respectively.

On Hardik Singh, who missed Thursday’s match because of a hamstring damage, Reid stated, “We will take a choice on January 21 whether or not he’ll keep or not. He is bettering daily so fingers crossed.

“But having a player less today was not the issue, we played with 16 players in Tokyo Olympics.”