PTI
Rio de Janeiro, August 11: India wasted five penalty corners seconds from the final hooter to go down 1-2 against reigning silver medallist the Netherlands and slump to their second defeat in the men’s hockey competition of Rio Olympics here today.
Netherlands scored both their goals from penalty corners through Rogier Hoffman (32nd minute) and Mink van der Weerden (54th), while India’s lone goal was scored by VR Raghunath (38th).
But the match witnessed intense drama in the final seconds as India did not bow out without a fight against the World No. 2 side.
Trailing 1-2 with four minutes left, India withdrew goalkeeper PR Sreejesh for an additional forward and pressed hard for the equaliser.
Their efforts bore fruit as India earned their fourth penalty corner six seconds from the hooter after appealing for a video referral.
That penalty corner resulted in four more back-to-back short corners but the Indian drag-flick battery of Rupinder Pal Singh, who took four tries, and Raghunath failed to break the Dutch defence led by goalkeeper Jaap Stockmann. Thus the Men in Blue suffered another narrow loss after going down to Germany by an identical margin.
A draw against the Netherlands would have sealed India’s place in the quarterfinals. But they now will have to wait for the result of their last pool encounter against Canada which will be played Friday.
India are now placed third in Pool B with six points behind leaders the Netherlands (10) and Germany (9). Argentina are placed fourth with four points. So even a draw would be sufficient for India to make it to the last eight stage. However, a victory would guarantee them third place and in the process help them avoid Group A’s No. 1 team Australia.
It was a quiet first two quarters from India as well as the Netherlands as both the teams preferred to play it safe, concentrating more on holding possession of the ball. Action however, exploded from the start of the second half.
The Netherlands drew first blood in the 32nd minute when Hofman scored from a rebound after Sreejesh made a fine save to deny Van der Weerden from Holland’s first penalty corner.
It took India just six minutes to draw level through Raghunath, who converted the second of two back-to-back penalty corners.
The Indians dished out some valiant defending in the final stages of the third quarter when they were reduced to nine men as SV Sunil and Raghunath had to sit out for five minutes each after getting yellow cards from separate incidents.
The Oranjes then earned three successive penalty corners midway into the fourth quarter. Van der Weerden finally managed to beat Sreejesh with his third shot.
