India ends home-leg with another loss

India ended its home assignments for the year with a fourth defeat on the trot, going down to Argentina 2-4 in the FIH Pro League on Sunday.

The host could have ended with a bigger humiliation if not for several strokes of luck and an opponent unwilling to push more than needed.

Even a 19,000-strong cheering crowd could not prevent the Indians from going winless at a venue that till now had been an unconquered fortress.

The only positives were that India, for the first time in four games, did not concede a goal in the first quarter and the forwards made repeated forays into the Argentine circle.

Neither of it mattered. The entries were ineffective with no shots on goal or penalty corners earned.

The deadlock was broken in the 18th minute when Tomas Domene converted a penalty corner. Argentina, in fact, dominated almost the entire match, had more attempts on target, and came close to scoring on multiple occasions in the first 15 minutes but were denied twice by the post, some good goalkeeping and an extra ball on field.

The last one also arose questions on on-field umpiring, already under the scanner through the week.

Domene had sounded the boards in the 13th minute through Argentina’s second penalty corner, only for it to be disallowed.

Argentina was forced to retake it because there was a second ball on the field of play which the on-field umpires missed and had to be pointed out by the reserve umpire from the technical table.

Tadeo Marcucci added two and Lucio Mendez scored one.

For the Indians, the only performer was Hardik Singh, the beating heart of a dying machine. He was everywhere, trying to do everything and was instrumental in both goals India scored but there was only so much even he could do.

The result: Argentina 4 (Tomas Domene 18-pc, Tadeo Marcucci 28-pc, 49, Lucio Mendez 43) bt India 2 (Aditya Lalage 50, Sanjay 59-ps).