India lose to Great Britain in hockey test event

Agencies | 20 Jun 2013 10:28 am

London: The Indian men's hockey team suffered a second straight defeat in the tournament, losing 2-4 to hosts Great Britain in the test event for the London Olympic Qualifiers on Thursday.

India conceded two goals in the first 11 minutes, with British striker Rob Moore and Simon Mantell doing the early damage.

VR Raghunath brought India back into the game by converting a penalty corner, but Ashley Jackson scored twice in three minutes to give the hosts the decisive edge.

Drag-flicker Sandeep Singh also scored, but the Indians were thoroughly outplayed by the Brits, who recorded their first win of the tournament.

India had earlier lost 0-3 to world champions Australia in their tournament opener on Wednesday.

India will next play Germany in their last league encounter on Saturday, at the pink and blue turf of the River Bank Arena, the main venue for hockey in the London Olympics.

Great Britain coach Jason Lee said after experiencing the hot climatic conditions in India when his team played in the World Cup and the Commonwealth Games, he is amused to find the Indians struggle to cope with the chilly and blistery conditions in the Olympic Park air.

"We've been to some hot major tournaments like the Commonwealth Games in Delhi and the World Cup there. So I'm giggling to myself seeing the Indians coming here and thinking it's freezing, finding it as hard in comparison as we found it in India," Lee was quoted as saying by BBC.

"I'm praying for an unseasonably cold August. Hopefully we'll have the coldest summer in history. My tip for acclimatization: Twenty-four hours in the fridge," he said.

Before the start of the tournament, India coach Michael Nobbs had said that this event would be used by the team to get used to the new blue turf. "We will be using this as our first outing on the blue turf. I had heard from friends in Australia that it takes some time to get used to the turf and it concerned me," Nobbs told IBNLive.com. "Secondly, we get to play against three of the top teams in the world. This [playing the top teams] we need to do desperately if we are to improve."

"It's no use playing against the teams at our level. We need to play against the best. Unfortunately, it comes with some pain as we are physically not as good as they are, yet. They can see we have improved a lot, but physically we are still not in the same sandbox as these teams."

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