Black Sticks 3
India 0
New Zealand's win over India breathed some much-needed life into their campaign at the Women's World Cup in Argentina and as a bonus almost certainly guaranteed a spot at the 2012 London Olympics.
The Black Sticks will meet China in the 7th-8th play-off on Saturday which will guarantee they will retain their current ranking of seventh and give Oceania a second Olympic spot with Australia, who will meet the Koreans for 5th and 6th, set to take the automatic entry.
Closer to home, the win, and subsequent top eight finish, should ensure on-going Sparc funding. They had been charged with a top eight finish at the 12-team tournament to guarantee continued support.
New Zealand will finish third best - behind England and Australia - of the Commonwealth countries in Rosario which bodes well for their medal chances at next month's Commonwealth Games although at home the Indians will be a tougher proposition.
After a scoreless first half, the Black Sticks scored three unanswered goals to take their first win, and fourth point, of the tournament and leave India and Japan below them on the pool A table.
New Zealand dominated the first half with Emily Naylor playing a key role but in failing to convert well-won possession and good build-up play into goals they were left frustrated.
They forced two penalty corners in the first half but again failed to convert leaving them at that stage with a 0 from 14 record from such opportunities in 4 games.
The Black Sticks finally broke through to open the scoring in the 44th minute with a well-struck reverse stick shot through the goalkeeper's pads by captain Kayla Sharland.
They doubled their lead six minutes later when Krystal Forgesson fired a good ball across the face of the Indian goal and Katie Glynn had a regulation deflection to score.
Interestingly, those two goals were scored when India had a player sin-binned just as New Zealand had conceded three goals against Australia when a player short.
Sixteen minutes from time New Zealand made it safe, this time from a penalty corner variation finished clinically by Sharland.
"We had expectations of a top eight finish and we have achieved that," said Black Sticks coach Mark Hager.
Sharland too was delighted with the result.
"It is great to come away with the win and while it was not the prettiest hockey, at the end of the day we have three points," said Sharland. "It was good to get both goals and to score the penalty corner. The team worked hard to earn the corner."
Argentina will play Germany and the Netherlands will meet England in tomorrow's semifinals. New Zealand will play China at 7.30am (NZ time) on Saturday morning.
