Rio Olympics (hockey): Indian eves humbled by Great Britain

Rio de Janeiro: A disjointed India went down 0-3 to Great Britain and their chances of making it to the quarter-finals of the Olympic women hockey competition got a bit more tough here on Monday night. This was India’s first defeat in two matches. They had drawn their opener against Japan 2-2. With only one point in their kitty, Indian women will have to do something special in their next three matches to stay alive in the competition. Great Britain played to a plan and tested their rivals in the first quarter before launching a full scale assault. They put up a very professional display, slowing down the game and then increasing the pace time to time thus leaving their rivals clueless. In the first quarter, Indian defenders did a reasonably good job as they foiled few good moves of their rivals but their counter-attacks lacked punch and incisiveness. After managing to  keep their rivals at bay in the first quarter, the Indian defence caved under pressure in the second as they conceded two quick goals. British girls made an incisive attack to rattle the Indian defence, which conceded a penalty corner. Giselle Ansley made no mistake in sending the ball home to put her side in the lead in the 25th minute. Sensing the unease in the rival camp, British players made another concerted move leading to the collapse of Indian citadel. Nicola White intercepted a measured cross and smacked the ball into the goal to increase the lead to 2-0 in the 28th minute. After the half-time, Great Britain players showed no slackness and kept the pressure on. Though Indians tried to counter the pressure by retaliatory moves but all the raids lacked punch and direction. Still, the fans were hoping that Indian girls will stage a comeback, as they did against Japan. But as it is said, miracles don’t happen every day. A couple of good moves by the ultimate winners again created panic in the Indian defence which caved in and conceded the third goal early in the third quarter through Alexandra Danson who scored a superb  goal in the 33rd minute. To ease the pressure on their citadel, Indians launched counter moves which fetched them two back-to-back penalty corners in the fourth quarter but failed to convert them. Greater Britain relaxed their domination allowing the Indians to move up from the flank  but their forwards  could not translate those chances into goal. This was  Great Britain’s second straight win and they climbed up to the top spot in Pool B with six points, while India slipped to fourth with one point.