By Avishek Roy and Sirshendu Panth, IANS,
New Delhi : Once monarchs of international hockey, India and Pakistan saw their semifinal hopes go up in smoke as England became the first side to make it to the last four of the World Cup here Saturday.
India were knocked out of the semifinal race after going down 2-3 to England, while Pakistan suffered a shock 3-4 defeat against minnows South Africa in Pool B at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium.
In another game of the same Pool, Australia got past a lacklustre Spain 2-0.
After four matches, England continued atop the Pool, tallying 12 points with an all-win record, while Australia also seem to be well placed for a semifinal berth after collecting nine points.
Three points behind Australia stands Spain, who still have an outside chance to make the cut for the last four stage.
In yet another display of the decline of the two sub-continental sides, India and Pakistan are languishing at the fourth and fifth rungs with three points each. South Africa also have the same number of points, but bring up the rear on goal difference.
Having settled for the lower classification matches, finishing among the first four in the Pool is vital as the third and fourth sides from each group would play for the fifth to eight positions. The fifth and sixth sides from both Pools would vie for positions ninth to 12th.
In the last outing of the day, egged on by the packed stands,India bounced back after conceding three goals, but an impressive England defence stood firm.
England scored through James Tindall in the 16th minute as he deflected in a cross from Nick Catlin. Ashley Jackson (42nd, 47th)) converted a penalty corner in the second half and added to the tally with a field goal to increase the lead to 3-0.
India rallied with goals from Gurwinder Singh Chandi (54th) and skipper Rajpal Singh (57th) but could not find the equaliser in the end, despite a couple of gilt-edged chances coming their way.
It was the hosts’ third straight loss, after an euphoric victory over Pakistan 4-1 in the first match. They went down to Australia and Spain 2-5 in their next two games.
England’s fairytale performance in the World Cup continued since their upset victory over Australia in their first outing.
The English team continued to be India’s nemesis as they had knocked India out of the Beijing Olympic qualifiers in 2008, the first time in 80 years for eight-time Olympic gold medallist India.
“We faced the same problem we had against Spain. We conceded a goal in the first half too easily as we left their strikers to move freely,” said India’s chief coach Jose Manuel Brasa.
Four times champions Pakistan’s semifinal dreams were shattered by South Africa, who staged a sensational second-half rally to shock the Asian giants and pick up their first points from the World Cup here Saturday.
Down 0-1 at the breather, the South Africans set a furious pace to break their seven-game losing streak in the World Cup competitions since 2002 as a sizeable crowd watched the exciting game.
Pakistan started off well, building pressure on the South African goal as Rehan Butt drew first blood as early as the fifth minute, beating goalkeeper Erasmus Pieterse.
But the script was turned upside down in the second session as Gareth Carr (penalty corner, 38th), Ian Haley (41st), Taine Paton (46th) and Marvin Harper (54th) found the target for South Africa during a 16-minute blitzkrieg.
Pakistan tried to make a comeback but they only managed to narrow the deficit as Muhammad Imran (68th) and Waseem Ahmed (70th) converted two more penalty corners in the dying moments.
In a must-win situation to keep alive their slim chances of making it to the last four, Pakistan played dismal hockey barring the first few minutes of the match, to lose to a side which had conceded 22 goals in the first three games, including a 0-12 thrashing against Australia Thursday.
“This is one of our worst performances ever. We were beaten in all the departments. The defence was very weak in the second half. After the first match against India, we were not able to improve. We have to review what has gone wrong here after we go home”,” said a crestfallen Pakistan coach Shahid Ali Khan.