India lose 1-2 to Argentina, final berth in doubt

Boom, Belgium, June 28 (UNI) India's chances of booking a berth in the final went haywire as they lost to Argentina 1-2 in a Champions' Challenge crucial tie here today.

After a barren first half, Jorge Lombi converted a penalty corner in the 39th minute to put Argentina ahead. The Latin American champions doubled the lead in the 60th minute with Mario Almada scoring a fine field goal, dodging past at least four Indian defenders before slotting the ball home by a reverse stick hit.

Sandeep Singh reduced the margin for India in the 64th minute via a penalty stroke.

With this win Argentina are on equal nine points with New Zealand while India are at six points.

India, who have six points from two wins now need to beat Japan in their last round-robin league match by a handsome margin on Saturday and hope that Argentina lose to undefeated New Zealand. That scenario will take into account the goal diference betwen India and Argentina to decide who would go to final against New Zealand.

India got as many as eight penalty corners, six in the second half, but wasted all of them while Argentina won three from which they converted one.

Dilip Tirkey was off target for four penalty corner hits while Sandeep Singh missed the remaining.

UNI