The inconsistent nature of Indian hockey returned to haunt its men's team on Monday when they suffered a 1-3 defeat against the Netherlands after holding Olympic champions Germany to a 1-1 draw in their last match of the 2015 FIH Hockey World League (HWL) Final being played in Raipur.
Looking for their first win of the tournament after opening the tournament with an embarrassing 0-3 defeat at the hands of Argentina, India seemed to have picked themselves up nicely against the mighty Germans. But the team's shoddy finishing let them down once again to allow the world No. 2 Dutch team run away with a comfortable victory.
The defeat meant India finished bottom of Pool B, but thanks to the tournament format, the hosts will still progress to the quarter-finals and take on the team that finishes top of Pool A.
Top teams of the world, divided into two pools of four each, are playing the HWL Final that includes quarter-finals, semi-finals and placement matches in the knockouts, before the big final.
Netherlands scored through Mink van der Weerden (36th min) and Mirco Pruijser (43rd) in the third quarter after the scores remained 0-0 at half-time after two goal-less quarters.
India reduced the deficit in the final 15 minutes through Chinglensana Singh's (47th) goal off a rebound from India's only penalty corner of the match, but Roel Bovendeert's strike in the 54th minute put the game beyond India's reach.
The win kept Netherlands on top of Pool B with two wins and a draw. They have 7 points, compared to just 1 for India.
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