We should have scored more goals: Oltmans

“I don’t think New Zealand had one serious shot at the goal in the whole game. We did not concede a single corner,” said Oltmans, expressing satisfaction with India’s performance after the disappointing 0-1 loss to Malaysia.

India needed a two-goal victory over Malaysia to secure their second consecutive entry into the final of this tournament, but played an erratic match to end up losing to the hosts, who had lost three previous matches.

Against the Kiwis, India rode on two penalty corner conversions by Rupinderpal Singh (17th and 27th minutes) besides field goals from S V Sunil (48th) and Talwinder Singh (60th) to assert their supremacy. “Our defence was really well organised. They kept the structure really well,” said Oltmans.

“We also managed to create a lot of goal-scoring opportunities. If one wants to be critical, we didn’t score as many goals from the opportunities that we created. The way we finished that off is not good enough yet. That is something we need to work hard on,” Oltmans added.