India go down to Ireland

India go down to Ireland
HS Rao

MILTON KEYNES, MARCH 26: Asian Games silver-medallist India's chances of making it to Sydney dimmed on Saturday when they were stunned 0-1 by Ireland in their second match of the Olympic hockey qualifying tournament.

The Indians, who went down 1-3 to Barcelona Olympics champions Spain earlier, slumped to their second successive defeat in the five-team Group A and face an uphill task in the race for the five qualifying spots.

The five qualifiers will join defending champions and host Australia, and the continental winners the Netherlands, Korea, Argentina and South Africa in Sydney Games.

Forward Rachael Kohler scored the all-important goal for Ireland in the 28th minute of the match off a penalty corner.

The Indians, playing the tournament without five star players -- forward Pritam Rani Siwach, Nidhi Khullar, Manjinder Kaur, Sandeep Kaur and Sita Gussain who all formed the core of the 1998 Bangkok Games team -- failed to master the damp conditions and also struggled to control the game.

With four new faces in the squad, the Indian eves looked out of sorts against the European style of physical play and were also not helped much by the umpires who failed to penalise a number of rough tackles by the Irishwomen.

The match got off to a false start when the players were forced in after 30 seconds because of a sudden hailstorm. On resumption, the Indians looked nervous and made a number of errors, allowing the Irishwomen to take control of the match.