The Indian women’s hockey team produced its best performance of the European leg of the FIH Pro League, while narrowly losing 2-3 to Great Britain after a spirited fight on Sunday.
India made a brilliant comeback in the second half after being 0-2 down with Sharmila Devi scoring four minutes from the regulation time to make it 2-2 but the visiting side conceded a goal in the 57th minute to lose the match.
Watson Charlotte gave GBR a 2-0 lead with two goals in the span of two minutes in the first quarter itself to which India could not respond till the second half. Charlotte struck first through a penalty stroke conversion in the fifth minute before scoring a field goal the next minute.
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There was no goal from either side in the second quarter before Navneet Kaur pulled one back for India in the 34th minute through a field effort. Sharmila restored parity in the 56th minute and it looked like the match would end in a draw.
But the next minute, Petter Isabelle converted a penalty corner to break Indian hearts and handed GBR a hard-fought win.
India earned five penalty corners in the match from which it could not convert even once while GBR got three.
So far, the Indian women’s hockey team has endured a disappointing run in the FIH Pro League and Sunday’s defeat was the sixth one on the trot in the European leg.
It had lost to Germany 1-3 in the first match of the England leg on Saturday. India had been beaten twice each by Belgium and Argentina in Antwerp earlier this month.
India plays Germany on June 8 here in its next match.
