India suffer second successive defeat, go down to England 2-3

Monchengladbach, Sep 7 (UNI) A disjointed India gave an awful display and suffered their second successive defeat, going down to England 2-3 in the Hockey World Cup here today.

With this defeat, India's chances of making it to the last four from the league stage dipped further. The way they played this afternoon they did not deserve to win and the result was a fair index of the team's performance.

The Indians played without any plan or strategy. They neither had stamina nor tactics to tackle their far superior rivals in all departments of the game.

The losers looked clueless throughout and coach Vasudevan Bhaskaran was forlorn and despondent on the bench.

The Indian team planning left a lot to be desired. They did not even include their drag flick expert Raghunath in the list of 16 players and their forwards had no idea as how to counter attack.

The midfielders looked sluggish which led to the pressure on the defence.

The 70-minute encounter was full of comedy which turned out to be pathos for the Indians, who must now be dreading of playing for the ninth to 12th places.

The Indians, who led 1-0 at half time, were lucky to have ended the match at 2-3 scoreline but for the missed chances including two penalty strokes by their rivals.

For England, James Tindall (53rd minute), Simon Mentell (56th) and Richard Mentall (60th) scored a goal each. For India, Shivendra Singh (29th) and Dilip Tirkey (66th) scored.

An erratic and erroneous India were lucky to have survived the first session and cross over with a one goal lead as England muffed two penalty strokes.

On a gloomy afternoon, India struggled to find their rhythm as they provided their rivals ample open space to manoeuvre their sorties.

India did not find their bearings and their rare and stray attacks could not penetrate the English defence. The spark was missing in the attack with Gagan Ajit making aimless runs around the field and Shivendra Singh, Hari Prasad and Tejbir also looking wayward.

The Indian defence came under attack in the sixth minute when Brett Garrard set up Jonty Clarke in the circle but the English striker fumbled near the goal.

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