Historic defeat for India at the hands of New Zealand
Deprived of energy and enthusiasm after losing to Pakistan yesterday, India churned out a pathetic display and in the process conceded biggest ever win to the New Zealanders. India lost its fifth match of the ongoing Azlan Shah Cup to New Zealand to an astonishing 7-3 score-line.
India took the lead in the beginning, but every time India took the lead NZ came up with an equalizer. Once the score was 3-3, after which in the second half India caved in. Entire defence need to be blamed for the pathetic display that disheartened the fairly good crowd that turned out today.
Once New Zealand scored off in the 32nd minute in reply to Sunil’s beautiful goal, the match came alive when Gurwinder scored a beauty from close range. Blair Hilton again came to the rescue of New Zealand with a field goal, off a rebound. Chandi again came up with a gem to give India the 3-2 lead, but it shortlived in the 46th minute when ultimate man of the match Andrew Hayward converted team’s penalty corner.
“We gave everything on platter. If you invite the forward to come and score, they will, this is exactly what our defenders did today”, rued Harendra Singh.
New Zealand in fact scored five goals continuously after India took the lead at 3-2.