Dilip Tirkey

Lahore: A battered and bruised India take on New Zealand in their last league match here Friday. A loss will mean they will be left to play for the last two places in the Champions Trophy hockey tournament.

A win over Friday?s lowly-ranked opponents will leave India with a distance chance to match their best-ever performance in the Champions Trophy ? a third place finish in the 1982 meet in Amstelveen. Going by their form, though, this seems a Herculean task for India.

India have just one win ? against an experimental German side ? from four matches so far, and a victory over New Zealand will set them up against either Pakistan or Spain who will be battling it out for a berth in the final on Friday.

New Zealand, who showed a lot of promise in the tournament, have the potential to upset the Indians, and if they manage to do that they would be playing in the bronze medal match on Sunday.

India will certainly not take their opponents lightly. New Zealand had stunned India at the Athens Olympics, with a last-minute winner for a 2-1 victory.

Hence a win on Friday will be good revenge for that humiliation and possibly a less critical appraisal of the performance of the young Indian side under Dilip Tirkey.

?This is our last chance to prove ourselves. We are not going to take any chances against our opponents even though they have remained winless in the competition. We will be going all out to win,? Tirkey said. (PTI)