India’s Cup of woes still runneth over

kuala lumpur: india signed off their campaign in the 10th men’s world cup hockey tournament in much the saw way as they launched it a fortnight ago — tardily and terribly. they squandered a solitary goal advantage through a laxity that was ridiculous and where punished by new zealand, going down by the odd goal in three on pitch two of the bukit jalil stadium here on friday.for the kiwis, it was, in a way, sweet revenge for a loss to the indians four years ago in utrecht in a contest for the same positions — ninth and tenth. for india, it was lahore 1990 revisited — a tenth-place finish. later, four-time champions pakistan, showed more courage and conviction when battling argentina to retain their fifth place finish at utrecht. they twice trailed, going into the lead in between, and then came back strongly late in the match to whip up a 5-3 triumph and also book a berth in the champions trophy to be played in cologne, germany, from august 31 to september 8 this year. india got what it deserved. they were definitely a wee-bit the better side overall and all through. they even surged to an early lead and had the kiwis on the defensive. but, in the second half in particular, they accountably slackened the pace and the pressure, particularly in midfield, allowing the kiwis to build breakaways. allowed to work up a new zeal, the kiwis forced the pace and earned three penalty corners in the second half — they went barren in the first. and after indian goalkeeper devesh chauhan, never seriously tested in the first half, nicely blocked the first, they found the space between the uprights from the next two. india took the lead in the tenth minute. till then they were playing almost as well as they did against spain. deepak thakore trapped a long hit from lazarus barla, got around fullback hayden shaw and hit a cracking, rising shot past goalkeeper paul woolford and to the roof of the net. that goal should have spurred the indians into consolidating. instead, they seemed to stroll around too leisurely. their next best chance came on the half hour. prabhjot singh cut in well from the right and hit a rasping, on-the-run rising shot. goalkeeper woolford was left standing but the ball sped just wide of the target. in the second half, too, the indians looked a shade better. but their efforts to splinter through were pathetic. there simply was no zest, no zing in their approach. even the advent of dhanraj pillay, forced to sit out through injury, for a few minutes did not alter the trend. and the kiwis earned two penalty corners from counter attacks in the 58th and 63rd minutes. from the first, after goalkeeper chauhan had padded a try by darren smith, ryan archibald picked up the rebound and sent a sizzling carpet drive to the boards. even this reverse did not arouse the indians from their slumber and five minutes later, phillip burros came up with a drag-flick that sped to the net via the stick of a defender. pakistan were undoubtedly the more accomplished side, especially during the last quarter hour when they uncorked the magic only they are capable of. and they were unruffled by the negating of a penalty stroke in their favour by dutch umpire peter elders and scored thrice in the space of eight minutes, two of them coming in the 62nd minute. jorge lombi gave argentina the lead in the 11th minute from a penalty corner. but pakistan struck twice in succession from penalty corner conversions by ali raza and sohail abbas. however, argentina regained the lead through goals by fernando zylberberg and lombi (penalty stroke) on either side of the interval. for a major part of the match thereafter, it looked as though pakistan were headed the same way as india, despite making better efforts. however, sohail came up with another penalty corner conversion — his tenth of the tournament to tie with lombi at the top of the scorers list — before muhammad nadeem and kashif jawad came up with super strikes to eke out a deserving triumph.