London: Indian Hockey Team is in complete disarray as they crashed to their second consecutive defeat on Wednesday in the London Olympics to put serious dent to their semifinals chances at the Riverbank Arena.
India who are back into Olympics frame after eight years fold looked rusty in their match against New Zealand and their only moment of success was the short corner in the opening minutes of the match. After that they barely were mere spectators in the match and could not match up to the
Black Sticks skills as they crashed to 1-3 defeat.
India opened their scoring after ace drag flicker Sandeep Singh put them ahead from the second short corner India earned barely a couple of minutes after the match started.
A goal down Kiwis stayed composed and came back into the match, whereas India somewhat went on the back-foot and crumbled under the attack.
New Zealand sensing the situation made use of it and forced two back to back penalty corners.
They missed the first one however scored the equalizer from the second one through Andrew Howard.
The equalizer saw the tempo of the game completely turn in favor of the Black Sticks and they started launching several attacks with their forwards making it past the feeble Indian defenders at will.
Not very long after the first goal, Kiwis forced a penalty stroke after Howard’s flick deflected of Bharat Chetri’s stick to hit Birendra Lakra’s body. The experienced Philip Burrows made no mistake and made it 2-1 for the Kiwis.
New Zealand maintained their stronghold on the match and five minutes later scored the third goal after Nicolas Wilson sounded the cage off a Shea McAlleas pass.
The second half could not change anything for the Indian as Kiwis were happy playing the pegging game and Indians could not show any commitment and looked wilted allthemore.
By Indian Sports News Network
