Our defence crumbled under pressure: Harendra

IPOH ( Malaysia): Indian chief coach Harendra Singh on Wednesday conceded that his side’s defence crumbled under pressure in the second session and the mispasses galore did not help them in their embarrassing 1-3 defeat at the hands of arch-rivals Pakistan in Azlan Shah hockey tournament in Ipoh.

Defending champions India dominated the first half and led 1-0 at the interval, but wilted under constant pressure from Pakistan in the second session to lose the match 1-3 and virtually end their hopes of a hat-trick of titles.

“Every second pass by, our players passing went to the wrong hands. When this keeps happening, you tend to lose confidence at the defence,” said Harendra.

“The way we played in the first half was the way to do it, but we played a disappointing game in the second half,” he said, adding that the young players have learnt a lot from the tournament.

Captain Arjun Halappa said India lost the contest in the mid-field.

“All that we did in the second half did not work out, we just were not able to put the ball away,” said Halappa.

“The ball seemed to stay deep inside our territory. We need to work on this aspect, but the players are young and this will be a good learning experience,” he said.

But Harendra said the Indian team was still on way to achieving he target of winning a medal they had set for this tournament.

“The players are aware of our target,” he said without elaborating.

India’s hopes of winning a medal are still alive and for that they must win their last league outing against New Zealand on Thursday.

India have brought a young team in Ipoh in the absence of some top senior players who were either injured or dropped for not attending the preparatory camp.

Pakistan captain Muhammad Imran, who put Pakistan ahead for the first time in the match through his penalty corner goal midway in the second half, expressed delight at putting it across India after a long time.

“We’ve won after a long time against India. Last year, we lost to them in all four encounters,” said Imran.

“We played to a plan in the second half and I’m glad out game plan clicked,” he said.

Pakistan manager Khawaja Junaid said any match between the two sub-continental rivals involves a lot of emotions.

“For an India-Pakistan match, controlling the emotions is always a very significant part of the game plan,” said Junaid, himself a former international.

“Our second half was focused on executing the game plan and keeping emotions in control,” he said.

“We started the tournament with two outstanding games, and then we lost the next two. This victory has put us back on course,” he said.