Sloppy India go down against England

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Bhubaneswar, December 2: Sloppy defending cost India dearly as Sam Ward scored a brace for England to hand the home team a heart-breaking 2-3 defeat in a hard-fought Pool B match of the Hockey World League (HWL) Final, here on Saturday.

Ward (43rd, 57th minutes) struck two field goals for England after David Goodfield gave them the lead in the 25th minute.

India's both goals came from penalty corner conversions by Akashdeep Singh (47th) and Rupinderpal Singh (50th).

The Indians were nowhere near to the level that they displayed in their first match against Australia.

If the Indians looked orgainsed and controlled against the Kookaburras on Friday, it was completely the opposite, at least in the first quarter, this day.

England, on the other hand, were happy to sit back and defend and put pressure on the Indian defence when the opportunity came.

India will next play Germany in their final pool match on Monday.

Meanwhile, in the other Pool B game of the day, Germany and Australia played out a 2-2 draw.

Marco Miltkau (7th minute) and skipper Martin Haner (58th) scored for Germany while Australia's goals came from the sticks of Blake Govers (39th) and Aaron Kleinschmidt (49th).

Australia will finish off the pool engagements against England on Monday.