India ended its league campaign on a winning note with a 4-1 defeat of Chile en route to the final of the World Hockey Olympic qualifying tournament.
SANTIAGO: India ended its league campaign on a winning note with a 4-1 defeat of Chile en route to the final of the World Hockey Olympic qualifying tournament at the Prince of Wales Country Club, here.
With their berth in the Monday's final already confirmed following Britain's 4-0 win against Austria, the Indians played freely and with confidence, but missed far too many scoring opportunities in the match played late Saturday.
The winner of the final will qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Drag-flick specialist V Ramachandra Raghunath was again in the thick of things scoring two goals (23rd minute, 61st), including one from India's only penalty corner to take his tournament tally to 10. Prabhjot Singh (9th) and Bharat Chhikara (23rd) scored one apiece.
For Chile, which defended with great fortitude, Felipe Montegu converted their lone penalty corner in the 63rd minute much to the delight of the partisan crowd.
India thus finished second overall behind Britain with 12 points, followed by Austria (9), Russia (6), Chile (3) and Mexico (0).
Although dominating much of the game, the Indian forward line yet again missed out on far too many scoring opportunities even granting that the Chilean defenders were on the button with their marking and covering.
The Indians rested Gurbaj Singh and Shivendra Singh for the game and the reshuffled half-line was quite solid overall despite a few blemishes.
On their part, Chile played well as they were allowed to and their limitations denied them more success.
India took time to get into their stride despite taking the lead in the ninth minute when Prabhjot deflected home a Bimal Lakra long corner hit.
Only in patches did the Indians display fluency and rhythm against a team that was running on enthusiasm and precious little else.
The Chileans did put together a few moves, but it called for a little more skill and finesse to breach the Indian defence that otherwise led a quiet existence through much of the first-half.
Past the 23rd minute, Raghunath found the boards off a Prabhjot Singh pass to give India a 2-0 lead that galvanized the side into more action.
Then followed probably the best phase of Indian display in this session when a flowing move down the middle orchestrated by Ignace Tirkey and Tushar Khandekar finally saw Chhikara letting fly from the right for the third goal.
Despite the obvious dominance, the Indians looked nowhere near their best or the form they showed while demolishing Austria or Mexico earlier in the league.
India began the second-half on a strong note, stringing together a few fluent moves while stepping up the pace. Adopting a "full-court press", they kept Chile under pressure, but a goal eluded them.
Rajpal had the best of chances in the first 10 minutes of the half when he launched a lightning counter-attack, exchanging passes with Prabhjot. However, on entering the circle, Rajpal shot wide.
Rajpal had another great opportunity to score. Put through by Roshan Minz, he was way off the mark in the 53rd minute. Almost immediately, it was Prabhjot's turn to muff a sitter by shooting straight at the goalkeeper.
Intent on attack, the Indians left their back open and Chile counter-attacked. However, an alert William Xalco intercepted inside the circle and sent Prabhjot on his way. Defender Ian Koppenberger, in desperation, brought down Prabhjot near the centre-line and was sent off with a yellow card in the 54th minute.
Three minutes later, India received their third yellow card in two matches when Ajitesh Roy was given marching orders in the 57th minute for bringing down Cristobal Rodriguez.
The Chilean defence stood up well to the onslaughts, soaking in all the pressure, but a deliberate foul inside their own 25-yard area presented India a penalty corner in the 61st minute and Raghunath converted for the fourth goal.
Chile went on the attack, but Prabhodh Tirkey came up with a great tackle. However, the Indian skipper dilly-dallied rather than clearing the ball and the hosts went on to force a penalty corner. Montegu sounded the boards with a carpet shot to trigger celebrations in the packed stands.
Chile's fightback came rather too late in the day as the Indians withstood an avalanche of attacks to come through without further damage.
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