Bhubaneswar, India: Rain spoiled India’s party as they struggled in heavy pitch conditions to lose 0-1 to Olympic champions Argentina and crash out of title race in the Hockey World League (HWL) Final yesterday.
The city crowd braved rain and windy conditions to pack the stadium and support the home team, but they had to return home disappointed as India were done in by waterlogged pitch.
Argentina utilised the only penalty corner that came their way to perfection in the first semi-final of the eight- nation tournament at the Kalinga Stadium.
Gonzalo Peillat struck from his team’s only short corner in the 17th minute to take a decisive 1-0 lead that the world number one side managed to hold on despite a barrage of attacks from India in the third and fourth quarters.
Going by statistics, India had the upper hand over Argentina. The Indians had more shots on goal (5 as against Argentina’s 4) and circle entries (11 against 10) than their opponents, but what eluded them was a goal that could have taken the match into a shoot-out.
Hurdle
The semi-final hurdle continued to haunt India in the tournament as they also crashed out in the same round of the event’s last edition at Raipur in 2015, eventually finishing third. The International Hockey Federation’s (FIH)
decision to continue with the match despite unfavourable pitch conditions because of continuous downpour came as a surprise for all and sundry