India crumble, lose to Britain in playoff
India’s defence crumbled in the bronze medal playoff as they crashed to a 1-5 defeat against Great Britain for a fourth-place finish at the World League Semifinals, here on Sunday.
The only time Britain had scored four goals against India was at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
The Indian defence fell apart as they were frequently caught off guard by counter-attacks, but the defenders also faltered on penalty corners twice. Goals from Alastair Brogdon (11th minute), Chris Griffiths (27th), Ashley Jackson (37th), Adam Dixon (42nd) and captain Barry Middleton (44th) gave Britain a five-goal lead before India pulled one back through Rupinder Pal Singh’s penalty corner conversion in the 59th minute.
Australia’s Chris Ciriello converted a penalty corner with the last play of the match for a 1-0 win over Belgium in the men’s final. DUTCH WOMEN WIN FINAL World and Olympic champions Netherlands lifted the women’s title after rallying to prevail 2-1 over Asian Games gold-medallists South Korea in the summit clash.
The Dutch women clinched the title through Ellen Hoog’s field goal three minutes from the hooter late on Saturday after the Koreans put up a good contest.
Korea took the lead against the run of play off their first penalty corner. Captain Kim Jong-eun’s penalty corner shot was deflected by Kim Bo-mi past goalkeeper Joyce Sombroek in the 34th minute. Netherlands wasted seven penalty corners before Caia van Maasakker got it right to equalise in the 44th minute. The title was still not in the Dutch grasp until Hoog shot on target in the 57th minute.