India's semifinal dreams quashed, lose to England 2-3

The crowd demanded goals. The Indian team obliged. But the exciting brand of hockey that the home side managed towards the fag end of their penultimate league outing was not enough to prevent England from scoring their fourth consecutive victory. They thus became the first team to seal a berth in the semifinals of the FIH Hero Honda World Cup.

India were valiant despite being down to nine men at one stage. However, the rhythmic forays came too late in the day against a team with good all-round ability, and they went 2-3 down, and out of reckoning. Australia have virtually clinched the second place, with Spain still not out technically but with an improbable chance of making it.

India’s third loss in four matches means they will be left playing for the lower rungs, their last outing against South Africa determining what placings they will be for. “The next match against South Africa is very important because both of us are on three points now. We would like to play for the seventh place, and we need to beat them to be able to get a shot at that. But they have beaten Pakistan today (Saturday), and we have to be very careful,” said India coach Jose Brasa.

The coach’s decision to not include Deepak Thakur in the starting 16 was a good move. Rajpal Singh was moved up and did not do too bad a job, while Gurbaj Singh took good care of the right flank really well to provide hope till the end. “Deepak has not been in good form, so we decided to keep him out. The team played well, even though they were not very good early on,” informed Brasa.
The team did take time to settle, an 18th minute strike from James Tindall putting England ahead and Arjun Halappa trying hard to recreate the magic that he could manage against Pakistan in the first match. The half-time score of 1-0 was added to by Ashley Jackson through a penalty-corner in the 42nd minute, Jackson also putting in a field goal to make it 3-0 in the 47th.

Just when all seemed to be over for the Indians, came a couple of goals, the kind of which India have not produced thus far in the tournament.

Gurbaj sent in a rasping cross from the right, which found Gurwinder Singh Chandi right in front of the goal.

The 54th minute strike was followed by another one three minutes later, when Shivendra Singh, coming back after a two-match suspension, initiated a terrific move.

He sent in the ball from the left, which reached striker Rajpal via Sarawanjit Singh, and the Indian captain put the ball in.

Sardar Singh and Gurbaj, two of the better players in helping build attacks, were given yellow cards towards the fag end of the match, even as nine-man India tried to meet expectations of the excitable crowd. Rajpal and Halappa failed to control the ball around the ‘D’ on a couple of occasions, even as the clock ticked away.

European champions England, playing without main defender Richard Mantell, looked a little shaky on pressure from the Indians and were lucky not to be held to a draw, which too would actually have been enough for them to go through to their first semifinal appearance since the 1986 World Cup in London.