South Africa’s men’s hockey team let in two goals in the dying seconds to lose 4-2 to India in a thrilling encounter at the Olympics Games in Athens on Tuesday.
The teams had been deadlocked at 2-2 (South Africa led 2-0 after 12 minutes) with just seconds on the clock when Indian captain Dilip Tirky smashed the ball into the corner of the net from a penalty corner.
With South Africa pushing for a last-ditch equaliser they were caught on the counter-attack and conceded the fourth goal with less than 30 seconds remaining.
South Africa led 2-1 at the interval.
The eight-time former Olympic champions were given precious little to work with in the midfield during the first 20 minutes that saw the South Africans dominate most phases of play.
South Africa deservedly went ahead when ace striker Greg Nicol combined superbly with Steve Evans at a penalty corner to flummox the Indian defence before slamming the ball high into the net in the seventh minute.
It was his third goal in two matches in the tournament.
SA went further ahead when midfielder Craig Fulton latched onto a loose ball in the circle to make it 2-0 five minutes later.
It was a half in which the Indians had just one shot at goal, but that was enough to get them back into the game before the break when veteran playmaker Dhanraj Pillay scored from a penalty corner rebound five minutes before halftime.
The former hockey powerhouse slowly started to gain the ascendancy as the half wore on with some enterprising play. SA finished the stanza strongly with Nicol putting a difficult chance just wide moments later.
India continued to threaten after the restart and pulled level when Baljit Singh put a fierce shot past Chris Hibbert in goal in the 40th minute.
Gregg Clark, playing in his 245th match for his country — a South African record — was superb as he controlled the midfield, but SA could not find a way past the stoic Indian defence as they pushed for the winner.
Matters were made even more difficult when Ryan Ravenscroft was sin-binned for an injudicious tackle with a little more than 10 minutes remaining.
South Africa’s line held while down to ten men only to concede the two late goals in the last 90 seconds for a heartbreaking loss.
Nicol showed the team’s frustration at the post-match press conference. ”We let ourselves down in defence. They came back at us, which is a typical Indian style of play.
”The key to playing India is to retain possession. They are lethal on the counterattack. We really wanted this game.
”Thinking like typical underdogs, we wanted to play them on a smaller pitch with smaller crowds and less atmosphere. Everything was in our favour.”
Captain Craig Jackson was understandably disappointed with the result.
”India are a bit vulnerable at the moment and we identified them as one of the teams we could take points off but we didn’t take our chances.
”The game plan was to play them down the flanks and to control the midfield, which we did. Putting Chris Hibert on as goalkeeper instead of Dave Staniforth was a tactical move. The guys know that they will be changed at times for other reasons than their last game.
”We wanted to put more physical pressure on them because they do tend to get a bit upset if you niggle them, but I don’t think we put enough pressure on them this time.
”This result will sit with us for a while. We are not at the back-to-the-wall stage yet. We came to this tournament just to do our best,” he lamented.
SA face The Netherlands in their next encounter on Thursday morning. – Sapa