Indian women hockey team suffered a humiliating 0-6 defeat in the bronze medal match against England to finish fourth at the Commonwealth Games while the men's team struggled and lost their bronze medal match 1-2 to England.
The women's team could convert none of the five penalty corners and their defence line-up cracked under pressure in the final quarter to go out of the tournament on an embarrassing note.
India had beaten England 2-1 in Pool matches but was outclassed today. India's captain Rani Rampal said they did not expect to lose in such a manner.
“We were confident going into the game and we knew we had to believe in ourselves. We needed to do the same again but we just gave them the game,” Rani said.
It is now the third straight time that Indian women's hockey team will return empty-handed from the Commonwealth Games as the last time it stood on podium was in 2006 when it won a silver.
Sophie Gray stood out with her stellar show as she steered her side to win with her three field goals while Laura Unsworth, Hollie Pearne-Webb and captain Alexandra Danson struck a goal each in England's commendable victory.
Navneet Kaur earned India's first penalty corner in the eighth minute. However, it resulted in causing injury to Vandana Kataria as Gurjit Kaur's furious hit rebounded off England custodian's pads and hit Vandana on her forehead.
The freak injury forced Vandana out of the field. India were given another penalty corner but the England defence was solid.
For the Indian men, Varun Kumar scored the only goal on the 27th minute while England's Sam Ward (7, 43) struck twice to avenge their 3-4 loss to India in the Pool matches.
India had won silver medals in the previous two editions of the Commonwealth Games, ending runners-up to Australia on both occasion.
India captain Manpreet Singh was naturally very upset with the outcome.
“We came here for a medal, but we didn't achieve that. We played really bad this tournament and I really don't feel like going anywhere tonight. We are so disappointed, we did not expect this will be the result of this tour,” Manpreet said.
Coach Sjoerd Marijne was also disappointed.
“In our close matches, we've got to take every opportunity and we don't do it. We give it to them too easily and that's been happening the whole tournament. I hope they (Indian players) don't ever want to experience this any more,” he said.
Though India had better ball possession in the initial minutes of the first quarter, England were far more dominating with intense attack.
With good man-to-man marking by England, making successful forays into the striking circle for the Indian forwards was hard to come by.
After several attempts, India's first breakthrough came in the 26th minute when Mandeep Singh and Lalit Upadhyay worked in tandem. A well-thought through variation between Rohidas and Varun fetched India a much-needed equaliser.
Though India's attack picked up steam, defensive errors on their part gave away two crucial penalty corners in the 39th and 42nd minute. While Ward's attempt was brilliantly saved by Sreejesh, England relied on their number one drag-flicker yet again in the 43rd minute to take the strike.
With inputs from PTI