India's hockey World Cup campaign was thrown into disarray as the team paid the price for a pathetic display to go down 2-3 to a lowly England in a crucial pool B encounter at Monchengladbach on Thursday.
Playing in chilly and wet conditions, the Indians, who had lost by the same scoreline to Germany yesterday, squandered a 1-0 lead for their second defeat in the high profile tournament which virtually ruled them out of contention for a semi-final berth.
The 11th-ranked England, on their part, blew two penalty strokes in the first-half before James Tindall (54th) and Simon Mantell (57th, 61st) put home penalty corners to give their side an unbeateable lead.
Shivendra Singh gave India a 1-0 lead with a 29th minute strike and five minutes from close, skipper Dilip Tirkey found the boards from a penalty corner.
The Indians were distinctly lucky to survive the penalty strokes in the first-half during which England messed up the chances that came their way.
Though India did most of the attacking, the sting was missing at the finish. The best of them was in the 12th minute when Tejbir Singh moving in from the left set up Hari Prasad. The latter could not beat goalkeeper James Fair, but the action that followed brought India's only penalty corner of the half. However, Fair deflected Arjun Halappa's drag-flick.
{{/usCountry}}Though India did most of the attacking, the sting was missing at the finish. The best of them was in the 12th minute when Tejbir Singh moving in from the left set up Hari Prasad. The latter could not beat goalkeeper James Fair, but the action that followed brought India's only penalty corner of the half. However, Fair deflected Arjun Halappa's drag-flick.
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