Black Sticks women feel heat

Charlotte Harrison is perfectly content with life in Delhi's much-maligned athletes village, despite the lockdown keeping New Zealand athletes confined within the village's bounds remaining in place.
The 21-year-old Black Sticks star from Whangarei said there was plenty to do within the village's "security bubble", although security rules keeping the New Zealand athletes together would need to be significantly relaxed to let them travel anywhere.
With the women's team in action on Monday against Wales and the hockey lasting for 11 days, it is unlikely any relaxing of the security rules would come soon enough to affect the women's hockey team regardless.
Harrison said keeping out of the heat - 33C and 97 per cent humidity on Saturday - was top priority.
"There's not a lot of boredom going on, at least with our girls. There's heaps to do and see.
"People have been trying to sort their phones out, which is a big priority, and we're going to check out the pool and the entertainment area."
Harrison's younger sister Sam has had her nails done in the beauty salon, although the nicely coiffed digits didn't get an airing at the Games' opening ceremony, with the women's Black Sticks opting out of the three-hour extravaganza so close to their opening game.
Meanwhile, putting the ball in the net is again the Black Sticks' Achilles heel - although women's team coach Mark Hager remains confident the scoring drought can be remedied.
The Black Sticks lost a warmup game to South Africa 2-0 on Friday at the Dynan Chand National Stadium creating a plethora of chances in the scoring circle but failing to convert.
Lack of goals plagued the women's team at the World Cup last month in Rosario in Argentina leaving them with a seventh-place finish.
Rather than panic in the energy-sapping heat of New Delhi, Hager said the attacking issues could be sorted before the opening game against Wales, which is also the first game of the 10-day tournament.
"It was a wake up for the girls in the fact they played well but just couldn't find the back of the net," he said.
"It has been a problem for a while now, whereas South Africa had a couple of chances and put them both away. We were able to say to the girls, 'look, you played well but now isn't the time to be complacent'.
"It's given us the perfect excuse to re-look at our structures, highlighting where we're poor."
The world's top four teams aren't part of the Commonwealth, with New Zealand seeded third behind England and Australia.
Hager expects the medal drought to end in Delhi.
"If we play well we've a big chance of being in the final, but right now I'm not looking beyond three points from our first game."
Hager has settled on his top playing XI following Rosario but combating Delhi's stifling heat remains key if they are to feature when the medals are decided.
"We're constantly reminding the girls to stay out of the sun and get plenty of rest ... It's something we have to stay on top of and good use of the interchange bench is still the best way to combat the heat.