India's hopes of qualifyingfor the final of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournamentwent up in smoke after they crashed to their third defeat inthe event, losing 0-2 to defending champions New Zealand intheir must-win penultimate round-robin match here today.
Five-time champions India needed a victory to stay in thecompetition, instead it was the Black Sticks who scored twosecond half goals to keep their flag flying in the tournament.
New Zealand struck through Andy Hayward from their secondpenalty corner in the 40th minute before Cory Bennett took thematch out of India's reach, scoring the team's secondgoal in the 55th minute.
Despite the 3-3 draw against Korea earlier in the day,six-time champions Australia are still atop the leaderboardwith eight points from four games, followed by hosts Malaysia(7 points) and New Zealand (6), who has leapfrogged to thethird spot by virtue of the win over India.
Korea have four points from as many games just ahead ofIndia (3 points). Pakistan, who play Malaysia later today, arestill in the fray but to remain in the hunt they will have towin their remaining two games of the tournament.
On the contrary if Malaysia beat Pakistan today, thehosts will be the first team to book its place in Sunday'sfinal. In that case, New Zealand will have to beat Australiain their final round-robin game on Saturday to make the titleclash.
Having won only one match (against Pakistan) out of thefour they have played so far, India are out of the reckoningand will take on Malaysia in their last league fixture onSaturday. India had earlier lost to Australia and Korea intheir opening two games.
It was New Zealand who had the first look at the Indiangoal but forward Stephen Jenness' shot was kept away byin-form Indian goalkeeper P R Sreejesh.