As India and Netherlands overcome their rival in distinct style in the penultimate day of the Punjab Gold Cup, Chandgiarh will witness them again on Monday — in the finals.

India struggled to beat New Zealand 3-2 while, contrarily, The Netherlands landed one of the humiliating defeats to their neighbours Germany. Only the other day the Germans steamrolled the hosts, but today they were pale shadow of the day gone by. After initial 10 or 15 minutes, The Dutch controlled the proceedings, with goals coming in regular intervals.

Perhaps after Germany went down 0-6 to Netherlands at the 2002 Champions Trophy — where Berhard Peters played a development side as he was conserving energy for the impending European Cup — this is again a humiliating defeat for the Germans.

India’s poor form continued — missed chances are galore — yet with a brace of goals from otherwise inaccurate and wasteful Rajpal, India managed to get full points. India defeated the Kiwis 3-2

The winning goal of course came from midfielder Ignace Tirkey three minutes from the hooter.

coach Harendra today rested goalkeeper Vikram Pillay and injured Deepak Thakur. In the second half, in particular, he deployed all his bench strength. GK Baljit Singh did not play though in the line up, while Adrian got the chance.