Indian men, women knocked out
India’s hopes of securing a direct berth in next year’s World Cup went up in smoke after they were handed a humiliating 1-5 defeat by Australia in the quarter-final of the men’s event at the FIH World League Round 3, here on Wednesday.
Six top teams — three each — will qualify directly for the 2014 World Cup to be held in Hague, the Netherlands from the two editions of FIH World League Round 3 — the ongoing event in Rotterdam and then the next one to be held in Malaysia from June 29 to July 7.
An error-prone India needed a miracle to topple Australia in what was the 100th international fixture between the two sides. But it was not be as the Kookaburras dished out a clinical performance to make short work of the Sardar Singh-led side.
The Australians took the stuffing out of India in the first 35 minutes by scoring four goals — Glenn Simpson (2nd minute), Matt Gohdes (20th), Russell Ford (22nd) including an own goal by Indian defender Sandeep Singh while their fifth goal was scored by Matthew Swann in the 39th minute.
Chinglensana Singh scored the consolation goal for India in the 21st minute.
India will now play the loser of the last quarter-final between Holland and France in the 5-8 classification matches on Friday.
Meanwhile, the women’s team put up yet another disappointing show to crash out of the semi-final race with a 1-8 drubbing at the hands of top-ranked Holland in the women’s event.
The Indians started on a bright note and dominated the early exchanges before fizzling out against the Dutch girls late on Tuesday night.
In the semi-finals, Korea take on Germany on Thursday while Holland face New Zealand.
India, meanwhile, will fight it out against Japan in the fifth to eight place classification matches.
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