Women miss gold, men lose bronze by same margin

It wasn’t a great day for Indian hockey with both the men’s and women’s teams going down by an identical 1-4 margin in the Super Series Hockey 9s on Sunday.

While a profligate men’s team frittered away chances to go down to arch-rivals Pakistan in the bronze medal play-off, the Indian women fought hard in the first half but lost the momentum in the second against the hosts in the title clash.

Indian men had only themselves to blame after missing three clear chances in the first five minutes.

India came out charging and dominated the early action but were unable to convert any of the chances that came their way. Instead, it was Pakistan who opened the scoring against the run of play, and then they did not let the opposition come back. Within the first 12 minutes they took a 2-0 lead.

Captain Shakeel Abbasi (7th minute) and Muhammad Waqas (12th minute) were the scorers before Rajpal Singh struck India’s lone goal at the stroke of lemon break through a penalty corner.

The second half saw Pakistan score through Fareed Ahmed (17th) and Waqas to take the game away from the Indians. To add to India’s woes, Vikas Sharma got a green card suspension to hand over numerical advantage to Pakistan.

While Sardar Singh, Gurbaj Singh and VR Raghunath created many moves from the backline and the midfield, SV Sunil, Yuvraj Walmiki and Tushar Khandker were off-colour as hard-earned crosses into the circle went abegging.

Indian captain Bharat Chhetri admitted the team played below par. “We did not play our usual game . In fact, we lost the game when we missed three clear chances within the first five minutes,” Chhetri admitted.

Women finish second

The Indian women, meanwhile, surprised hosts Australia by taking early lead through Soundarya Yendala in the ninth minute but the Hockeyroos continued to dominate possession and they struck back through Hope Munro in the very next minute.

Kellie White (14th) put them ahead with a reverse shot to lead 2-1 at break. Post break, Marnie Hudson (20th) and Ashleigh Nelson (21st) completed the tally.