Riaz was outstanding for India

For the first time in the tournament, I saw Dilip Tirkey and Lazarus Barla combining well with Mohammed Riaz and Thirumalvalavan and from one such move supporting midfielder Riaz essayed a pass to Mukesh Kumar, but skipper Dhanraj Pillay failed to beat Kiwi goalkeeper Scott Anderson.

The Kiwis played more open hockey, trying to win the game. Their midfielder Simon Towns ran a solo which culminated in the day’s first penalty corner in the 24th minute. Off a good set piece, with a dummy by Andrew Hastie, the ball rolled to Darren Smith, who made no mistake in putting his team in the lead.

The goal spurred the Indianmidfielders to move further up, supported by the consistent Riaz. From one such move with Baljit Singh Dhillon, India earned their first penalty corner in the 26th minute and equalised through Riaz in the same pattern as the Kiwis.

With the score at 1-1, the second half was completely dominated by the Indian forwards and one lost count of the forays they made.

In the 12th minute of the second half, India earned another penalty corner, from a move initiated by Mohammed Riaz. The set piece, however, failed to beat Anderson.

Realising that only a win would see them through to the semis, the Indians attacked from the left, making the New Zealand defenders to give away space in the midfield.

Riaz took advantage of the space available in the middle to create several openings through Mukesh and Pillay.

India should have forged ahead at least on two occasions, but, with only the goalkeeper to beat, veteran forwards Mukesh and Pillay missed the target.

Baljit Singh Dhillon, gaining in confidence andcombining well with Riaz, made a beautiful run on the left and squared a pass to Pillay, who failed to trap the ball neatly. But Mukesh, following Pillay closely, beat the onrushing Anderson to make the score 2-1 in the 55th minute.

(Vasudevan Baskaran is a former India captain and national coach. He won a gold medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics).