Kharab stresses on penalty corner against Belgium

Kazan, Russia, Apr 21 (UNI) Upbeat despite the loss against Netherlands Antilles, Indian womens' hockey captain Mamta Kharab today said her team would have to improve their penalty corner conversion to overcome Belgium in tomorrow's match.

''We can rely on field goals against weak teams, but it won't work against strong teams like Belgium. We need to work on penalty corners and score goals,'' Kharab said.

Kharab said her team, who failed to convert any of the 12 penalty corners awarded to them in the first two matches, were finding it difficult to stop the ball.

''We face problem in stopping the ball. We were doing well in the camps and are disappointed the way it went here,'' she said.

''We did a lot of work on this today in the training session, and am confident things will improve for better tomorrow.'' The Haryana girl was concerned over the Indians' inability to score more than one goal against Netherlands Antilles.

''Probably we are overcrowding in the circle. We have to improve positioning,'' Kharab said.

Asked if the team had got over the trauma of yesterday's defeat, the captain said, ''Certainly, we have another match on hand, and that is sufficient for us to forget that Sunday match.'' India take on Belgium in a do-or-die clash tomorrow and will have to earn full points to keep alive their chances of reaching the final.

UNI XC AB RKM RK2010