Hockey World Cup: England exposes India’s shortcomings

The visuals, under the gloomy skies here at the Wagener Stadion, painted quite the picture.

Late in the third quarter, England came from behind to regain the lead when Henry Croft, under little pressure from Jugraj Singh, had the time and space to receive the ball, take a few touches, turn and fire it past Mohith H.S. Before the restart, the rolling subs were urged and Jugraj, once again, demonstrated no urgency to get off the pitch, forcing head coach Craig Fulton to furiously provide him the marching orders.

After the opening day win, where there were still several questions left to be answered, the Indian men’s team failed to come up with them in its World Cup Pool-D 4-2 defeat at the hands of No. 3-ranked England on Monday.

Coming into the tournament, England boasted the best defensive record of the year.

In its 17 matches, it conceded just a goal per game, a remarkable number by hockey standards.

Yet, India recovered from the James Bandurak opener to score two, one from a Harmanpreet Singh rocket drag-flick and another from forward Dilpreet Singh, after some neat work from Hardik Singh and Abhishek Nain by the byline.

Tough going

But as it did in the first quarter, India struggled against England’s man-to-man full court press. It forced turnovers in compromising areas of the pitch. England’s pressure paid off in the 38th minute when Stuart Rushmere stretched to get on the end of Liam Sanford’s fired in pass as the ball sailed past Mohith. A few minutes later, Mohith looked on helplessly as Croft went on a third to make it 3-2.

India demonstrated urgency in the fourth quarter, but even as England had two green card penalties, it lacked ideas and composure inside the circle to find a reply.

Killer blow

Bandurak. This person had earlier capitalised on a defensive lapse for his first goal, piled on India’s misery when he fired home from a penalty corner to take England to the second round. While India could still reach the next round, this result will only make its path to the semifinals harder.

The Indian women’s team will face off against South Africa on Tuesday.

The result: India 2 (Harmanpreet 16-pc, Dilpreet 24) lost to England 4 (Bandurak 13 & 54-pc, Rushmere 38, Croft 42).