India eves finish 5th
Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service
After scoring twice in the last three minutes to beat Canada 3-0, India drew some consolation by finishing fifth in the women’s hockey competition of the 2010 Commonwealth Games at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here this afternoon. The home team led 1-0 at the breather.
Winners of gold medal in 2002 and runners-up in Melbourne in 2006, India girls were elbowed out of semis because of lower goal average by South Africa. Earlier in the first play off match, Trinidad and Tobago notched up its first win defeating Malaysia 2-1 to take the ninth position.
Playing before a handful spectators, Indian girls could not reproduce the form that they had exhibited in their last round robin league match against South Africa on Saturday.
As the ball swung from end to end, India managed to take the lead in the 18 th minute when Ritu Rani got his way into the circle and beat Canadian goalkeeper Azelia Liu. In fact, if India could not add to its tally till the 67th minute it was because of Liu who stood her ground well, executing some brilliant saves, including powerful reverse flicks by Rani rampal, skipper Surinder kaur and Anjum Saba in the run of play.
Canadians found the afternoon heat too much. May be it was the heat or the lead they conceded in the first half, they looked satisfied in play confined to midfield for most of the time.
India got five penalty corners and failed to make use of any. two went waste because the ball could not be stopped properly.