Sports India

Kuala Lumpur: It’s not a tale that needs to be told with a touch of anguish. India’s 0-1 reverse against the former World and Olympic champion, the Netherlands in the semifinals of the Azlan Shah hockey tournament provided a few positives.

Important among them were the consistency of effort in the defence and a good level of goalkeeping by Adrian D’Souza. On the negative side was the lacklustre work by the frontline.

In the other semifinal, Olympic champion Australia walloped New Zealand 7-1 after leading 3-0 at half-time.

Australia meets the Netherlands in the final on Sunday, while India and New Zealand are set to fight for the third place.

That India courted defeat seven minutes before the hooter, off a penalty corner shot by Roderick Weusthof, mirrors the closeness of the contest. The Dutch coach, Roelant Oltmans, referred to the outcome as being reflective of the strategy planned — not to engage in full scale attack but keep control of the match against the unpredictable Indian attack.

Solid defence

A close scrutiny of tie clearly reveals that the Indian defence was solid throughout, giving little space for the usually ebullient Dutch attack headed by Teun Di Nooijer.

The emphasis to keep the rival frontline at bay even went to the point of chief coach Baskaran fielding all the three deep defenders, Tirkey, Kanwalpreet and Sandeep, to support the tiring mid-field.

Vinay and Vikram Pillay stood out in the mid-field as did Viren Resquinha. Halappa worked hard as the linkman. A word of praise to D’Souza cannot be termed an exaggeration. Both the saves he effected — the first from Robert Horst and then from di Nooijer — bore a stamp of class.

It was in fashioning a consistent attack that India came a cropper. Tejbir Singh, on whom the frontline had revolved so far, was bottled up by Floris Evers. Hari Prasad, Shivendra and Tushar flashed only in patches. Even the seasoned Gagan Ajit Singh was wayward.

A tight midfield, led commendably by Jerome Delmee, with Derickx as an able ally ensured the Dutch never slackened a wee bit and allow the Indian attack gain any advantage.

In the frontline again it was the experience of di Nooijer that was quite transparent. In fact, it was his run that ended in the match-winning penalty corner. The Dutch had three penalty corners as against the one by India.

It was Australia all the way in the other semifinal. Underscoring its stature as Olympic champion, the Aussies puzzled the Kiwis from the start. After Grant Schubert scored off a cross from Travis Brookes, the Aussies enlarged the margin with two penalty corner goals by Luke Doerner and lead 3-0 at half-time. Thereafter, it was just marking the names of the Aussie scorers as the hapless Kiwi defence was left in a trance.

The results (semifinals): Netherlands 1 (Roderick Weusthof) bt India 0; Australia 7 (Grant Schubert 2, Luke Doerner 2, Matt Nylor, Travis Brookes, Dean Butler) bt New Zealand 1 (Richard Patherick) HT 3-0.

Saturday’s matches: 7-8 positions: Argentina v Malaysia (5 a.m.); 5-6: Pakistan v Korea (7 a.m.)