Hockey World Cup: India lose 1-2 to England in a closely contested match

The Hague, Netherlands: In their second match of the Rabobank Hockey World Cup 2014, being played at the Kyocera Stadium, The Hague, Netherlands, India lost to England in the final minute of the match by 2-1 on Monday.

Both the teams started by attacking each other but the first half was almost a dry run till the 27th minute when finally Mark Gleghorne opened England's account through penalty corner. While PR Sreejesh has been going through great form but this time he was unable to stop the goal and gave England the lead of 1-0. In the very next minute England’s Middleton attacked again but PR Sreejesh saved brilliantly yet again.

In the 30th minute this time it was India who went on the attack and Dharamvir managed to score a field goal giving India the much required equalizer. The game post that went alive as both the teams were pepped up and wanted to take the lead before going into the break. England closed in again in the final moments of the first half but Sreejesh at his best saved yet another goal and the teams went into break with 1-1 on the scoreboard.

Going into the second half everyone expected more goals to be scored but while both the teams tried their chances but were unable to convert the chances that they got. In the 69th minute when both the teams were aware that they were hardly 90 seconds away from the final whistle England got a penalty corner opportunity.


This immediately got the memories of the last match when India lost the game to Belgium in the final 15 seconds. While the defence including Sreejesh were adamant to not allow history to repeat itself with them and with great relief Sreejesh saved the penalty corner but unfortunately Simon Mantell hit back the ball and this time scored successfully, giving England the lead and the win.

India will take on Spain on 5th June 2014.

Results of the Day­-

India 1 – Dharamvir (30 min) Vs. England 2 - Mark Gleghorne (27 min), Simon Mantell (69 min)