SA rally to down one-up India

“We should not be made to suffer because of the bias of home umpires,” a member of the Indian team management said.

The team, described as India A but virtually the National side, dominated play for most part of the game and took a 7th minute lead through Samir Dad.

But poor umpiring thwarted Indian hopes to increase the lead before South Africa equalised through Steven Vivian off an indirect penalty-corner conversion a minute from half-time.

The visitors continued to dominate, but were frustrated time and again by poor officiating and defensive play by the hosts before Bram Denny found the winner against run of play in the 56th minute.

India went all-out in search of an equaliser, but their efforts were in vain. The visitors, struggling to get used to the cold conditions here, were held goalless in the first test on August 13.

“We have three more tests to play and I am certain we will take the series,” chief coach Vasudevan Baskaran said.

India took the initiative from the word go and dominated in all areas. In the 7th minute, skipper and centre-half Mohd Riaz dribbled past a host of South African defenders and passed to tall forward Samir Dad, who made no mistake from close range.

The Indians continued to dominate, but without further success and had to contend with poor umpiring. In the 34th minute, the hosts were awarded a penalty-corner following an infringement and Vivian converted the indirect attempt.

South Africa, who aim to clinch a direct berth for next year’s Sydney Olympics by winning the All-Africa Games to be held from September 8-18, played second fiddle to the visitors, but were left complaining about the officiating.

India came up with several goalbound moves, but were thwarted by the tight defence mounted by South Africa. The hosts found the winner in the 56th minute when Denny struck to send them into raptures.

The South Africans, beaten 1-2 by India at the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games last year when the two met before the current series, will be high on morale for the third test.

Holland crush Indian colts 1-6

BERLIN: Indian juniors put up yet another pathetic display in the face of Taeke Taekma’s four-goal second-half blitz, including a hat-trick, to crash 1-6 against Holland in the second and final under-21 hockey tie at Amstelveen in the Netherlands yesterday.

Short-corner expert Taekma, who struck two goals in the first match as India were routed 0-5, slammed in three penalty-corners and converted a stroke in the space of 18 minutes to give the hosts another massive win.

The Indians, preparing for next week’s eight-nation junior event at the Polish city of Poznan, fought well in the first half to hold their superior rivals 1-all at half-time.

Holland went ahead in the third minute through Ronald Bouxier’s field goal, but the Indian boys checked their aggressive forays and equalised through centre forward Inderjit Singh’s completed 22nd minute field goal.

But Holland regained the lead four minutes into the second half through Karel Keller. That opened the floodgates as Taekma, from the 44th minute onwards, capped the Dutch superiority with four goals to break the Indian resolve.

Indian junior coach, CR Kumar, told PTI that all 18 players in the side — most of them probables for the 2001 Sydney Junior World Cup — had received “very good exposure” ahead of the Poznan Tournament.

He maintained the matches were not tests, but only warm-up matches.