Speaking to SportsCafe, former India goalkeeper Ballal said, “There were quite a few reasons why the Indian team lost. Our forward line was totally off colour and there was a pale shadow. Akashdeep, Mandeep and all of them were totally off colour. There were a lot of unusual mistrapping and a lot of missed chances. Akashdeep had an easy miss chance you could call it. We had much more goal scoring opportunities than them. I think the players were not at the right place and the excitement was too much that they forgot to do their roles inside the circle. I personally feel that they forgot to do what they are supposed to be doing even in positioning play. Akashdeep had an opening at the top of the D which should have been goal bound. Let the goalkeeper make the save but when you are playing against top teams, you can’t just be so casual and hit the ball wherever you want. These half chances are that teams need to convert if you want to go to the next level and finish on the podium. The Dutch did that and we couldn’t, that’s a simple fact.”

“The defence was commendable, Surrender’s performance was outstanding yesterday and even Manpreet and the midfield held up well. I was a little disappointed with the way Sumeet and Varun played. They were outstanding in the rest of the matches but in the quarters they didn’t have the best outing.”

“India’s strength in the first three matches was that they used a lot of skills inside the circle but yesterday where was the skill or the application of mind inside the circle? There was no application of mind by the Indians. Penalty corners or a try at the goal - India lacked in these aspects yesterday,” explained Ballal. 

Speaking about the decision Ballal said, “Yellow card in the last 10 minutes of the match is very harsh and unwarranted and I feel the umpire was little biased on that occasion. At that stage of the match, sending a person for 10 minutes, it could have been a five-minute suspension. The gravity of error was not as much that it deserved a 10-minute suspension. There were a lot of instances where the umpiring was debatable. The Indians played to their potential and I think they were overawed with the situation.”

Speaking about Sreejesh’s performance, the former goalie added, “In the whole game, the Dutch had only one or two chances. Sreejesh was not called up that he had to make five to six saves. Only two or three chances those were there for them and we conceded two goals from that.”

When asked about Harendra Singh and the current Indian team with a lot of young boys doing well in the blue jersey, Ballal replied, “I think this Indian side is a very young team and we should keep pursuing with this. We have to continue what we are doing and the team will only get better. The margin of error when you play the top teams is very little and you know you will be punished severely for one or two mistakes. That’s what champion teams do to you, the top teams give you very few chances. When you are playing top teams you get one or two chances and it is better to put the ball in.”