India suffers a humiliating 1-4 defeat against Pakistan

Melbourne, Mar 18 (UNI) A wayward India, playing without any plan, suffered a humiliating 1-4 thrashing at the hands of arch-rivals Pakistan and that left them on the tenterhooks in the men's hockey competition of the Commonwealth Games here today.

The teams were levelled 1-1 at half time. Pakistan earned four penalty corners and India one but all of them were wasted.

India, after a draw against Malaysia yesterday, now have only one point from two outings and only a miracle can earn them a podium finish.

The Indians have no excuse to offer. They were simply outplayed in all departments of the game, especially in the second half.

The Pakistani forwards dazzled and played stunning hockey and were unlucky not to have won by a much bigger margin.

The 134th encounter between the two teams turned out to be a fiasco for the Indians, whose forward and defence line stood thoroughly exposed.

For Pakistan, Mudassaar Ali khan (24th), Tariq Aziz(38th) and Adnan Maqsood (40th and 58th) scored. Tejbir Singh was the lone goal-getter for India in the 14th minute.

India started promisingly and dominated the proceedings for the first 15 minutes of the game. Though the Pakistanis earned a penalty corner in the 10th minute, they failed to make use of it.

The Indian midfield functioned well with Vikram Pillay, Ignace Tirkey and Prabodh Tirkey feeding the forward line while Arjun Halappa supplemented their efforts.

In the forward line, Rajpal and Tejbir combined well and kept the pace of the game going.

It was in the 14th minute that India took the lead when Halappa generated a move from the right and sent a cross to Deepak Thakur who relayed the ball to Tejbir and he did the finishing act with a super diving effort (1-0).

But it turned out to be a case of celebrating bit too early as the Pakistanis came back pounding and within 10 minutes drew parity.

Rehan Butt made a tearing move from the right, beat the defenders and his cross was superbly deflected home by Mudassar Ali.

The Indians tried hard to take the lead again and they forced a penalty corner too but Sandeep Singh's drag flick was deflected away by a defender.

Then what happened in the second session turned out to be a nightmare for India.

The Pakistanis simply outplayed and outpaced them. The furious attacks by the Green Shirts rattled the Indians whose defence became vulnerable. Suddenly the Pakistanis became to lord of the turf with their rivals scurrying for cover.

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