Unbeaten Holland was bundled out of the final of the Eight-Nation Invitational hockey tournament here when they could only manage a 3-3 draw with India in their final preliminary round match on Saturday.
The Australians, who defeated New Zealand 6-1 in their last match, booked the final berth and will meet India in the final on Sunday.
The Dutch had four wins and three draws as against Australia’s five wins and two losses. Both teams finished on 15 points each. Australia made it to the grade, as number of wins counts when both teams tie on points. The Australians, beaten 0-2 by India in the league, will get a chance to avenge the defeat.
The Indian coach A. K. Bansal was practical about today’s outcome. “It does not matter whom we play at this stage. We will continue to play attacking hockey and we are confident that we will come out on top. The match with Holland was an exciting affair and it gave us a good work out. They are a good team.
“For us the focus is now on Australia,” he added.
The India-Holland match was an exciting game which saw the lead changing thrice. The Dutch knew only an outright win would take them to the final, and were serious about the contest. But the Indians had other ideas, and kept up with their attacking play to annul their target.
The Dutch took the lead in the 8th minute through a penalty corner conversion by Mirk van der Weerden. The Indians leveled in the 12th minute when Diwakar Ram smashed his 11th goal of the tournament from a penalty corner. The first half was deadlocked at 1-1.
Diwakar then put them ahead in the 40th minute but the Dutch were back in the hunt with two goals in the 51st and 56th minutes through the blades of Van der Weerden and Bob de Voogd respectively.
Diwakar continued his act and posted a brace of goals, the last one coming in the 58th minute.
Dutch coach Michel van den Heuvel was hugely disappointed with the scoreline as he felt that the tournament rules had done them in.
“We are probably the best team here and we will not play in the final. The rules say the team that wins the most number of matches will go through. We have four wins and three draws while the Australians have five wins and two losses.
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“The players gave a good account and I’m proud of them. They played their hearts out and go out like this is a sad. We will think of the other match tomorrow. Right now we are not too happy with the situation,” he said.
The match was stopped in the 58th minute right after India had scored their equalizer when heavy rain fell. It was resumed after 60 minutes. Still the Dutch got not less than five clear chances to get the goal in the remaining 12 minutes of play. But they fumbled with them all.
Host Malaysia once again came up short as they succumbed to their sixth defeat when they went down 1-3 to Germany in their last preliminary round match.
Malaysia will play for seventh place against the South Koreans while Germany will play for third place against Holland.
Pakistan defeated South Korea 4-1 in another match at Pitch Two. Pakistan will play New Zealand for fifth place.
Caption:
Top: Diwakarram Scores yet another goal, this time against The Netherlands.
Below: Dejected Dutch team members, after failing to reach the finals.
Images: Vino John, GNN
s2h Note: Chennai based GNN is the only media from India at KL when Bansal’s team makes another history.