Rusty India go down to Belgium in Pro League opener

ROURKELA: The Indian men’s team’s dream return to Rourkela after nearly two years turned sour as they went down to Belgium in their FIH Pro League opener here on Wednesday.Playing their first game of a busy year, the Harmanpreet Singh-led side did their best to keep up with the Belgians but fell well short and went down 1-3 in front of a nearly packed stadium after failing to take their chances and making some bad mistakes.As a result, Belgium grabbed their fifth win of the tournament with Nelson Onana (23rd min), Thomas Crols (53rd) and Arno van Dessel (57th) scoring for them. Shilanand Lakra (29th) got the lone goal for India, but it certainly could have been more.“I thought we were in that game right up until the last seven, eight minutes. We had to do a lot of deep defending but we had enough chances to get at least two more goals and that is a bit disappointing. We were a bit rusty,” said coach Craig Fulton after the match.He is hopeful of better showing when India meet Argentina on Thursday.“It’s our Game One while it was their Game Six in terms of playing. We haven’t played in a while. So, we are building and we need to get going again. It’s not an excuse, but it’s just we are not sharp,” he added.Earlier, Belgium dominated from the very beginning and took the lead through Onana in the 23rd minute after Harmanpreet gave away the ball in the middle.India, however, drew parity six minutes later when they won their second penalty corner of the match. Amit Rohidas took the initial shot but it was well stopped by the first rusher. Shilanand was at the right place and he flicked it into the goal to make it 1-1.Despite the goal, India failed to take control of the proceedings and Belgium grabbed their fourth PC midway into the third quarter which was well saved by Suraj Karkera with his left foot.India though had some chances on the counter but first Araijeet Singh Hundal played a weak shot towards the end of the third quarter. Then early in the fourth quarter Karthi Selvam missed a great chance after Nilakanta Sharma fed him the ball.The misses hurt India as Belgium upped the ante in the final few minutes and grabbed two goals in the last seven minutes through Crols and van Dessel.They could have added even more to the tally as they won three back-to-back PCs towards the end but India held fort. Hopefully they will now do better against the Argentines, who will also be looking to come back from their defeat against the Belgians.