Defenders let the team down

On a day when the Indian cricketers ably defended the mammoth score of 349 despite Pakistan’s onslaught at distant Karachi, their hocke...

On a day when the Indian cricketers ably defended the mammoth score of 349 despite Pakistan’s onslaught at distant Karachi, their hockey counterparts at Madrid faltered yet again, surrendering to Pakistan the third position — by the same margin (2-4) as in their pool game last Saturday — in the Olympic qualifier.

The Indians failed to cash in on their forwardline which did its job admirably and even brought them on level only to be let down by their poor defence. Prabhjot Singh and Gagan Ajit Singh struck the goals for India but the rest of the team just failed to last the full 70 minutes.

The Pakistan’s win was this time fashioned by their speedy forwardline with skipper Nadeem Mohammed leading by example.

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Nadeem played the pivotal role in feeding their forwards. The Indians started falling around again in the last 20 minuets of the match — honours were shared in the first 50 minutes of the game much like the India-Dutch semifinals.

India even managed to stop their bogeyman — Sohail Abbas — from scoring off their first penalty-corner. It was a brilliant charge by Ignace Tirkey, who was the most consistent performer among the Indians in the bronze match.

But seven minutes after the break, the Indian defence caved in to Sohail’s powerful flick which put Pakistan into the lead again. Unfortunately for India, both Ignace Tirkey and Viren Rasquinha were substituted a little earlier and the defenders for the PC — Vikram Pillay, Kanwalpreet Singh, Bimal Lakra and Baljit Singh Saini — seemed overawed by the situation.

	Holland win gold

			• Holland remained unbeaten in the Olympic qualification tournament as they beat Spain 2-1 in the final. Both teams finished 1-1 after the full 70 minutes were played and the Dutch struck through the godlen goal in the first minute of extra time – centre-forward Ronald Brouwer scored the winning goal.

Sohail’s flick just flew over Saini’s head to the right of goalkeeper Devesh Chauhan. Experts have criticised India’s PC defence in the tournament —their defence, including goalkeeper Chauhan were standing on the line instead of charging ahead. They were no different in this match.

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Hockey minnows Belgium had saved seven out of eight PCs against Pakistan while India have conceded five goals out of six PCs against them in two matches. India had one PC in the match and though they tried Kanwalpreet Singh for the lone attempt which entered the net was disallowed by the referee.

Pakistan were charged up for the match — their Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans said his boys wanted to avenge the cricket loss against India in the first one-dayer at Karachi. ‘‘At no cost did we want a 2-0 result today. My team wanted to win this match.’’

It was shocking that the Indians did not show the same urgency and planning for this match. Their coach Rajinder Singh did not even turn up for the post-match press conference. Incidentally, Rajinder chose the Pakistan tie to try the fledgling players — Len Ayyappa and Baljit Dhillon.

The off-colur Saini was again responsible for some loose display, his careless play paved the way for Pakistan scoring their third goal. And if the Indian think-tank had any plans for the team to launch a counter-attack, it didn’t show on their performance.

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The statistics of action in the last five minutes in both D’s are clinching evidence of that. Pakistan were leading 3-2 when India entered their D on three occasions but lacked penetration. Pakistan made four attacks in the Indian D in the final phase and even scored through Kashif Jawed with one minute left.

India’s mixed perfornance is bound to raise doubts among their fans — they had lost focus against Pakistan for the third time in a tournament. In the previous two Champions Trophy encounters, India had lost to Pakistan in the bronze match.