Black Sticks end India's World Cup dream

Scores had already made a beeline for the exit gates when New Zealand had two match points after leading 3-1 as India had missed two of their first four attempts.
(Photo|Shamim Qureshy)
(Photo|Shamim Qureshy)
BHUBANESWAR: Well. To be fair to New Zealand, they were dressed for the occasion. Wearing their traditional all black outfit, this had the sense of a funeral by the time the Indians dragged themselves off the turf. After a nail-eating, bum-squelching normal time finished with the scores level at 3-3, the visitors held their nerve to win the shoot-out 5-4 to send the hosts packing from their own party with almost half the tournament remaining. After Sam Lane scored the visitors' ninth penalty, he wheeled away in delight much to the bemusement of the Kalinga crowd. His teammates threw their hockey sticks in the air as they ran after Lane. At the exact moment as their sticks hit the ground, the Indian players sat on the pitch wondering about the margins that had gone against them.
Scores had already made a beeline for the exit gates when New Zealand had two match points after leading 3-1 as India had missed two of their first four attempts. But both Sams, Hiha and Lane, missed their attempts. Harmanpreet Singh also had a match point but he hurried his shot and it was straight at the keeper. Sukhjeet Singh wasted another match point before Lane gave the visitors a third match point which they converted as Shamsher Singh missed.
In a way, this match never really should have gone past the 60 minute mark. But then, India played all of their worst hits in a manic 20 minute period which began seconds after they had taken a relatively commanding 3-1 lead. In fact, they had won this crossover multiple times in normal time. They took the lead, and multiplied their advantage before again multiplying their lead after Lane had halved the deficit.
At 3-1 and less than 20 minutes to go, they were looking odds on to advance to the quarterfinals. That's when the Black Sticks came to life. Sensing that something was off with the hosts — they displayed varying degrees of nervousness throughout the match — the visitors went on the attack. They earned a penalty corner, their first off the night, and promptly converted from it.
A minute later, India had a chance to make it 4-2 as they had a penalty corner of their own. You don't get any prizes for what happened next. They missed. Even though all teams have struggled with penalty corner conversions off late, India's conversion has been one of the worst at this World Cup. After the match, a very downcast looking Harmanpreet Singh, the side's leading drag-flicker, did not know what had happened. "It's our mistake, we couldn't execute them," he said.
But, strangely enough, their body language was down. Here they were, leading 3-2 and playing in front of their own fans, one quarter away from a last-eight place. In the last 15 minutes, they just withered away as the Kiwis almost camped in the Indian half in search of an equaliser. India, meanwhile, looked to just manage the situation. Now, this is what the Kiwis wanted. Forty-eight hours before the game, coach Greg Nicol spoke about wanting to take the game deep.
They got what they wanted four minutes into the fourth quarter when Sean Findlay showed amazing reflexes to deflect a wayward hit goalward. 3-1 had become 3-3 and the panic was visible by now. Passing channels weren't open, outballs were being overcooked or under-hit and the defence pressed the emergency button whenever the opposition had the ball. That pressure almost told when a New Zealand attack resulted in the ball bouncing dangerously close to the goalline with a fraction of a second to go. With players converging from all sides, the hooter went much to the relief of the hosts as it allowed them to regroup.But, on a chastening night for the hosts, the relief proved to be temporary.

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The New Indian Express
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