India lose 3-6 to Pak in Champions Challenge hockey semis

Salta (Argentina), Dec 13 (PTI) India's hopes of booking
a berth in next year's Champions Trophy were shattered as they
went down fighting to arch rivals Pakistan 3-6 in a thrilling
semifinal encounter of the Champions Challenge I hockey
tournament here.
In-form India, who were Group A toppers with an unbeaten
record, failed to find the bearings at the last four match.
They dominated for most part of the match but failed to
convert the chances that came their way.
As is often happened in Indian hockey team, the opponents
scored from the few chances they got and Pakistan were 3-1 up
at the end of half time.
The match was the usual classic exhibition of hockey
artistry which is the case when the two sides clash but that
was of no use for India.
India now face Argentina for the third-place play-off.
Pakistan play New Zealand in the summit clash and winner will
qualify for the 2010 Champions Trophy in Monchengladbach,
Germany.
New Zealand had beaten Argentina 3-2 in the other
semifinal.
All the Indian goals came from penalty corners through
Dhananjay Mahadik (eighth and 62nd minutes) and Diwakar Ram
(67th minute).
For Pakistan, Rehan Butt (2nd, 29th and 64th) scored a
hat-trick of field goals while Sohail Abbas (32nd, 70th) found
the target twice and Haseem Khan (58th) got one.
As early as the second minute, goalkeeper Adrian D'Souza
failed to stop a seemingly harmless shot by Rehan Butt to
concede the lead to Pakistan and from then onwards India were
doing the catch-up job.
India though equalised quickly in the eighth minute with
Dhananjay Mahadik sounding the board with a well-executed
penalty corner. India were then playing with one-man advantage
with a Pakistani player cooling off for five minutes at the
bench for a dangerous foul.
India had the momentum after that equaliser and Salman
Akbar in the Pakistani goal faced a barrage of shots after
spectacular moves that pleased the crowd.
Adrian made up for his initial mistake by stopping Rehan
at the top of circle. But there was little he could do on a
phenomenal shot by Rehan in 29th minute which gave Pakistan
the lead.
Penalty-corner specialist Sohail Abbas then found the
target three minutes later and Pakistan were leading 3-1 going
into the breather.
After resumption, India got a couple of chances only to
be wasted. Excellent work by captain Rajpal Singh earned them
a penalty-corner but India could not convert it.
They had a long period of domination, with a massive
chance for Rajpal after a quick series of passes in the
circle, but his deflection on the far post was just wide.
With time ticking on, India pressed more players upfront,
exposing in the process their defence and Pakistan increased
the lead via quick counterattacks.
Haseem Khan took advantage of the huge gaps at the India
defence and scored an opportunistic goal in the 58th minute,
pushing the Pakistani lead to three goals.
A flurry of four goals were scored at both ends in the
last eight minutes. Dhananjay Mahadik scored from a
penalty-corner in the 62nd minute to make it 4-2 but Rehan
Butt neutralised it two minutes later to maintain the Pakistan
lead to three goals and completed a hat-trick of field goals
in the process.
Diwakar Ram converted a penalty corner three minutes from
time but Sohail Abbas made it 6-3 in the last minute via a
penalty stroke after his last penalty corner was stopped
illegally by the Indians. PTI PDS
SKT