The Netherlands handed out India its first defeat, prevailing 3-1, in their match at the Hockey World League League semifinal here on Tuesday.
All the goals came in the first two quarters of the match with the Netherlands scoring through Thierry Brinkman (2nd minute), Sander Baart (12th) and Mirco Pruijser (24th), while Akashdeep Singh sounded the board for India with a brilliant field strike.
The loss, however, did not make any impact on India’s chances in the tournament as it had already qualified for the quarterfinals before Tuesday’s encounter as it registered wins in their first three games. India will take on Malaysia on Thursday while the Netherlands will face China in the quarterfinals on the same day.
Going by world rankings, the Netherlands was rated as the favourite against the sixth-placed Indians and the Dutchmen played the match on the expected lines, controlling the proceedings for major part of the match.
Early strike
The Indians were slow to get off the blocks and the Dutch caught the Indian defence off guard as early as in the second minute when Sardar Singh lost possession of the ball just outside the Indian circle and Brinkman made no mistake.
The Netherlands doubled its lead in the 12th minute when Baart scored from its first penalty corner.
The Netherlands made it 3-0 in the 24th minute when Pruijser scored after receiving a through pass from Bjorn Kellerman. It took a brilliant field strike from Akashdeep to bring India back into the match as Roelant Oltmans’ men went into the breather trailing 1-3.
After the change of ends, the Indians created a few scoring chances with Ramandeep Singh and Mandeep Singh at the fore but the Netherlands goalkeepers Sam van der Ven and Pirmin Blaak, who took the field through rolling substitution, made some fine saves to keep the lead intact.
The Indians created their chances but they failed to sustain possession of the ball for long periods of time, which eventually cost them dearly.
In the last 10 minutes, India earned two more penalty corners but van der Ven was at his best to deny Harmanpreet on both occasions.
The results: Netherlands 3 (Brinkman 2, Baart 12, Pruijser 24) bt India 1 (Akashdeep 28); Canada 1 (Johnston 29) drew with Scotland 1 (Marshall 42) .
