India remain hopeful as they play England

By Tushar Bhaduri in New Delhi

AFTER two successive defeats, India’s semi- final hopes are in great jeopardy and Jose Brasa’s boys will have to play out of their skins against England on Saturday if they want to stay alive in the World Cup.

Not only do India have to beat England and South Africa, but also hope that other results in Pool B go their way for the hosts to make it to the last four, even though Brasa has resigned to the fact that his team will fight it out for the lesser positions.

Australia and Spain exposed India’s failings and the Englishmen, currently on a high after three consecutive wins, will provide another stern examination.

The return of forward Shivendra Singh, after serving a two- match suspension, may provide a boost in morale, but the task facing the home team remains daunting.

The Indians looked awfully short of options up front and there was not much top quality strike force on the bench either.

“ We gave away soft goals in the previous two matches, but overall the team played well,” skipper Rajpal Singh told M AIL T ODAY . “ There isn’t a lot wrong with the way we played the two games, but we have to eradicate the small mistakes we are committing,” the striker said.

India were on a high after the 4- 1 drubbing of Pakistan, but the fact remains that the arch rivals, ranked seventh in the world, have ceased to be top contenders at major championships. Australia ( ranked second) and Spain ( third) punished every little error that India made.

“ We made some mistakes in the build- ups to our attacks and while we missed, Spain scored,” Rajpal said, before adding “ hope floats as long as there is life”. England will miss the services of the Mantell brothers — Simon and Richard — the latter being their penalty corner specialist who was badly injured in the match against Pakistan and is out of the tournament.

Simon injured his foot before the tournament started and with Matt Daly also not making the trip dude to a hamstring injury, England have a few players missing from the side that won the European Championships last year.

But the team still has plenty of firepower.

Captain Barry Middleton has been inspirational and Ashley Jackson has been a livewire up front. James Tindall, Ben Hawes, Jonty Clarke and Richard Alexander will give the Indian team management plenty to think about.

National coach Harendra Singh claimed the boys were not disheartened by the twin defeats.

“ The body language is positive and the morale is high.

The next two matches are very important and we are looking for a good result,” he told M AIL T ODAY . Talking about the strengths of the England team, Harendra said: “ Their forwards are very quick and extremely fit.

We can’t afford to concede soft goals and need good man- to- man marking.” Interestingly, India have won three of the five World Cup matches against England, but England have won the last two. India beat them twice at the 2007 Champions Challenge.

Forward Deepak Thakur’s form is a big worry but Harendra said the team has faith in the 29- year- old’s ability.

“ I won’t like to comment on any individual as it is a team game.” Also, despite Sandeep converting only one penalty corner against Spain, the team did not give Dhananjay Mahadik and Diwakar Ram a shot at goal.

“ Brasa had faith in Sandeep so he went on taking the hits,” Harendra said.