Bhubaneswar: Canada and South Africa played out a 1-1 draw in their second Pool C match to stay afloat in the Men’s Hockey World Cup here at the Kalinga Stadium Sunday.
It was a hard-fought battle with little separating the two teams. In the contest between World No.11 Canada and World No.15 South Africa, both teams fought hard in the opening two quarters and did not give each other an inch of advantage to remain goalless at half time.
It was South Africa who took the lead in the 43rd minute through a fine reverse stick field goal by Nqobile Ntuli. But South Africa’s joy was shortlived as Canada restored parity a couple of minutes later when they were awarded a penalty stroke and skipper Scott Tupper took the onus on himself to bring the match on level terms.
Thereafter, both Canada and South Africa pressed hard in search of the winner but they failed to breach the rival defence to eventually share the spoils. Canadian goalkeeper David Carter received the Man of the Match award for his impressive display which eventually kept the South Africans at bay most of the time.
The result kept both the teams in the hunt for a place in the knock-out round. While Canada will play hosts India in their last pool match December 8, South Africa will face World No.3 Belgium on the same day.
