India’s hopes of booking a berth in next year’s Champions Trophy were dashed by archrivals Pakistan following a 3-6 loss in a thrilling semifinal encounter of the Champions Challenge I hockey tournament in Salta, Argentina, on Saturday.
In-form India, who were Group A toppers with an unbeaten record, dominated most of the semifinal but failed to convert the chances that came their way.
India now face Argentina for the third-place play-off. Pakistan play New Zealand in the summit clash and the winners will qualify for the 2010 Champions Trophy in Monchengladbach, Germany. New Zealand beat Argentina 3-2 in the other semifinal.
All the Indian goals came from penalty corners through Dhananjay Mahadik (eighth and 62nd minutes) and Diwakar Ram (67th minute).
For Pakistan, Rehan Butt (2nd, 29th and 64th) scored a hat-trick of field goals while Sohail Abbas (32nd, 70th) found the target twice and Haseem Khan (58th) got one.
As early as the second minute, goalkeeper Adrian D’Souza failed to stop a seemingly harmless shot by Rehan Butt to concede the lead to Pakistan.
India, though, equalised quickly in the eighth minute with Dhananjay Mahadik scoring with a well-executed penalty corner.
India had the momentum after that equaliser and Salman Akbar in the Pakistani goal faced a barrage of shots after spectacular moves that had the crowd on its feet. Adrian made up for his initial mistake by stopping Butt at the top of circle.
But there was little he could do on a phenomenal shot by Butt in the 29th minute that gave Pakistan the lead.
Penalty-corner specialist Sohail Abbas then found the target three minutes later and Pakistan led 3-1 going into the breather.
India got a couple of chances in the second half only to see them wasted.
Excellent work by captain Rajpal Singh earned them a penalty-corner but India could not convert.
They had a long period of domination, with a massive opportunity for Rajpal after a quick series of passes in the circle, but his deflection on the far post was just wide.
With time ticking away, India pressed more players upfront, exposing in the process their defence and Pakistan increased the lead via quick counter attacks.
Haseem Khan took advantage of the huge gaps at the India defence and scored an opportunistic goal in the 58th minute, pushing the Pakistani lead to three goals.
A flurry of four goals came at both ends in the last eight minutes.
Mahadik scored from a penalty-corner in the 62nd minute to make it 42 but Butt struck two minutes later to maintain Pakistan’s lead, completing a hat-trick in the process.
Diwakar converted a penalty corner three minutes from time but Sohail Abbas made it 6-3 in the last minute via a penalty stroke after his last penalty corner was stopped illegally by the Indians.