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Ahead of semis, India loses its 'spine'

Men's hockey team take on New Zealand for a place in final without suspended captain Sardar

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In captain Sardar Singh’s absence, a lot will depend on drag flickers Rupinderpal Singh (2nd from left) and VR Raghunath (3rd from left)
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Pitted against a higher ranked New Zealand, the Indian men's hockey team will be hugely impacted by the absence of its star player and captain, Sardar Singh, who has been suspended for the match.

Sardar endured a 10-minute suspension in India's last match against South Africa. But the dangerous offence against South Africa had come the back of another one against Australia in the earlier match, when he was deemed to have indulged in dangerous and inappropriate physical conduct against Eddie Ockenden. The jury thus slapped a two-match ban on him.

But following an appeal by the Indian team management, the jury reduced the suspension to one match. A two-match suspension would have ruled Sardar out of either the final or bronze medal match too.
India's manager and former international player MK Kaushik maintained that the tackle was "unintentional".

"Since he has already been reprimanded, he received a two-match suspension. But after we appealed it was reduced to one match," he added.

Sardar was disappointed with the ban but preferred to speak about the match. "Our team is now playing well," but admitted at the same time, "After four goals we got a bit lazy and took it easy. We need to focus on the whole game."

As for the semis against New Zealand, he added, "New Zealand are a good team and are ranked higher than us. But we have an even record against them and tonight and tomorrow we need to sit down and analyse what we have been doing well and where we have been making mistakes."

Seven of the 16 Kiwi players have more than 150 international caps but the young Indian team has proved to be well-balanced in this tournament.

New Zealand's penalty corner specialist Andy Hayward is the man India will need to look out for and at the same time focus on the defence in the absence of Sardar. India's answer to Hayward will be Rupinderpal Singh, who has performed consistently in the tournament to become India's leading scorer.

"The tournament starts for us now because the next match is very important. If we win against New Zealand, it's great but if we lose, then the last few days mean nothing," Rupinderpal said.

As for the two teams' record in the Commonwealth Games, India defeated New Zealand 3-1 in 1998 in the league stage and later finished fourth, while the Kiwis failed to make the last four. In 2002, India didn't play while the Kiwis were the losing finalists. In 2006, New Zealand beat India by 2-1 for the 5th position. In 2010, the two teams did not face each other but India made their way to the finals against Australia and bagged the second spot. New Zealand settled for the third position, beating England in the bronze medal match.

India's chief coach, Terry Walsh, said, "Unfortunately we will play New Zealand without Sardar Singh who is under one match suspension. New Zealand are well versed in these contests but indeed this is our challenge. Our team is growing game by game and this important match will measure how far we have developed. Our defensive structure will need to be at its best. Our confidence and self-belief will determine the outcome of this game."

In the other semifinal, four-time winners Australia, who have won the gold each time the sport has figured on the programme, will meet England.

Women finish fifth
The Indian women's team defeated hosts Scotland 2-1 to claim the fifth place in the classification matches. Though they attacked right through it was only in the second half that the Indian forwards finally scored and won the match. Anupama Barla slipped in a field goal in the 53rd minute and took the lead 1-0. It was quickly followed by a penalty corner conversion by Scotland's N Kidd in the 55th minute and that levelled the score 1-1. However, Scotland's joy was short-lived as the Indians took the lead back in the 57th with Poonam Rani striking another field goal and marking 2-1 as the final score of the match.
 

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