The Indian women's hockey team has been enduring a difficult away campaign in the FIH Pro League, just like their men's team counterparts.
However unlike Harmanpreet Singh and Co, who finished second from bottom but didn't have to fight a relegation battle because Ireland were way behind, Salima Tete and her team are fighting to stay in the competition next season by avoiding finishing last.
With two matches to go, can India avoid relegation from the FIH Pro League? Here are the scenarios.
What do the current standings say?
At the moment, India are placed bottom of the table with just 10 points from 14 matches. They are in relegation tussle with England, who are second from bottom with 11 points from 14 matches and Germany who are seventh with 13 points from the same number of matches.
With two matches remaining for all three teams, they will desperately look to avoid the last-place spot. The ninth placed team will be relegated to the FIH Nations Cup and will miss out on playing the top hockey teams in next season's FIH Pro League.
What makes it more interesting is the final week matches. England and Germany will play each other twice, in a direct relegation battle while India will face China twice.
At the top, the Dutch women's team have already sealed the title for the record fifth time.
What must India do to avoid the drop?
India's lack of an outright win in their last six matches have made things extremely difficult. They faced Australia, Argentina and Belgium and lost five matches, with a 2-2 draw against Argentina which also ending in a shootout defeat. This has resulted in a scenario where surviving relegation is not in India's control anymore.
The best-case scenario is to win both their games against China, which will take their points tally to 16 (three points for a win) and hope both England and Germany don't reach that number. If India can earn an outright win and a draw, they will have to hope that either Germany and England will suffer one or two outright losses. If India lose even one game, it becomes extremely tough for them to avoid relegation.
It's also important to remember that shootout wins carry a bonus point (two points in total) so that will also give India a push towards safety.
In short, India should look to avoid outright defeats in both the matches. Getting outright wins are important because the number of victories (in a season) will count first in case two or more teams are on equal points, followed by goal difference and then goals scored for. Currently, India have only two outright wins while Germany and England have three each.
What are the other tiebreak rules?
In case two or more teams are on equal terms on matches won, goal difference and goals scored for, aggregate results of the matches played between these teams will be counted to determine the final rankings.
If the above criteria is still not enough to determine the rankings, then field goals scored followed by a lesser number of red, yellow, and green cards earned in a season will be counted.
Finally, can India avoid relegation?
As mentioned above, it's not in India's hands anymore and to make matters worse, they are woefully out of form. In must-win matches, they are up against China who are silver medallists at the Olympics and are currently fourth in the Pro League with 22 points, which includes six wins.
India have defeated China twice at the Asian Champions Trophy, but it came against a heavily rotated team in the absence of their regular head coach Alyson Annan.
In their last two games against Belgium in Berlin, India struggled to score goals, and their defence conceded seven. They are competing but not doing enough to win the matches. Head coach Harendra Singh knows that his team needs to show improvement in all the departments if they want to survive the drop. It's not impossible but looks less likely to happen.
What's the match schedule involving the three teams?
June 28
India vs China in Berlin at 5:30 PM IST.
Germany vs England in Berlin at 8 PM.
June 29
Germany vs England at 5:30 PM IST.
India vs China at 8 PM IST.