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2009: Europe Tour
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England beats India 3-2, clinches the series 2-1 (8/2/2009)
--s2h team
India’s hopes of clinching a series in the “Queen’s Land” got shattered as England defeated India 3-2 in the final test played at Birmingham and won the 3-test series 2-1.

The Indian team started from where they had left in the last match. They got a penalty stroke in the 3rd minute only, and Vikram Pilley gave all the Indian spectators, who were present in big numbers, their first reason to cheer.

Just 15 minutes later, S.V. Sunil cheered them again as he scored India’s first field goal in the match and doubled the Indian lead. Mere 18 minutes of play, and India was leading 2-0! All the Indian supporters could smell a series victory from there on.

But that was it for India.

In the 30th minute, Ashley Jackson, who had scored 2 goals in the previous encounter, opened his team’s account through a penalty corner. At the half time, score-line was 2-1 in India’s favour.

Jackson showed his skills again in the second half as he converted another PC and made it 2-2 in the 50th minute.

It could have been anybody’s game from this situation, but today was England’s day. Young Iain Mackay, who made his international debut just a couple of months ago against Germany, scored a field goal in the 64th minute and the Indians could do nothing in the remaining time. So the hosts won the match 3-2 and clinched the series 2-1.

Earlier, England had won the first match 3-1, but the Indian team did well enough to make the series 1-1 in the second encounter.

In the final match of the series, which was played in dry and sunny weather, the Indians were moving nicely till the half-time whistle, but a good show by the host team in the second half disappointed all the Indian supporters.

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Time is right shape the iron.
by Siddharth Chari on 8/2/2009 9:04:19 PM
Indian Hockey may be still boasting of its glorious past but are we doing something about the future of the sport in the country. May countries which did not have the skill or infrastructure when we were at our prime seem to learn a lot from us, even the secrets of our success and even the reasons for failures. We are not up to the mark in trying to get many people on to the sport to build the talent pool in the first place. Once the appropriate talent pool is available we can make sure the bets can be picked. Take an instance of Cricket. This sport had that much value before we won the 1983 World Cup. The BCCI at that a small independent sport body captured the opportunity just like a business man and enchased it with lots of tournaments and ultimately had the next edition of world cup held in India. Now did we do the same with Hockey? Nope. Let’s check for one more instance: T20 world cup. As soon as India won the Championship the think tank got together and wanted to capture gold once again and they did in style - IPL. We still haven't learnt the lesson. Each series win/lose should be used to convert the moment and encash it (I may be rude -- you need money to make sure players are doing well and do not lose any motivation). Get more local tournaments running. Give free tickets to people (how many people are going to come if you try to sell tickets to them). It’s just like your car. To start the car you need to have a working battery. Once the car is started the battery will get recharged through the dynamo. So let’s not lose this very good opportunity of a loss. Time is right shape the iron.
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