Kookaburras hopes of finishing off the Indian leg in the 2023-24 FIH Pro League season has been denied by the Dutch following their free-scoring run with the 5-3 loss yesterday

The Kookaburras hopes of having a 100% winning run to finish off the Indian FIH Pro League tour has been denied in their 8th & final game by the No.1 Netherlands side 5-3. They actually got away with the first goal which was so far, so good to get past the first step. But then the Netherlands got away with two goals thanks to a double Duco Telgenkamp brace going into half-time before they could not keep on scoring where they collected three more in the 2nd half as two late goals isn’t enough to close that gap towards full-time. It’s never an easy game every time when you go up against a top-ranked side who will not give you a free run. Yes, the Kookaburras did score 1-2 late goals where they did their best to make that count & bring into penalties as the clock ticks down. But again, not stopping the patient & destructive Dutch attack cost them time & time again unfortunately as the game goes on that includes the ill-discipline. If they went full on attack rather than defending a good start like they did late in the game, then it would’ve been a different story. So now they are six points behind the No.1 ranked side on the ladder where every game is a big game now if the Kookaburras wish to beat every other team they play in their next tournament leg while seeing other teams stop the Dutch along the way & hope they take home the season trophy not long ahead of the Olympics in Paris around late July-early August. We did have an near perfect and unreal campaign though with seven wins in a row up until this point as both of our national hockey teams will be resting up and training for a while back home before going back again in late May-early June across Europe such as Antwerp in Belgium & London, UK.