Brave SA men go down fighting in Glasgow

Double Olympian Cronje (who suffered concussion after taking a fearful blow in first-wave penalty corner defence against Australia) and Olympian Robinson (torn calf) were unable to play – leaving SA down to only three field players on the rolling subs bench compared to India’s five, a huge disadvantage.

South Africa’s post-man at defensive penalty corners, Tim Drummond, was also hit on the head at an Aussie penalty corner and it must have taken enormous courage for the Durbanite to take up his position on the left-hand post against India’s powerful drag-flickers at corner time.

India were at their brilliant best at times but South Africa did not help themselves in the first half with a number of unforced errors, yet the fightback of the South Africans from the desperate position of trailing by four goals to a 4-2 score early in the second half says much for them.

VR Raghunath (third minute) and Rupinder Singh (ninth minute) both nailed down successful penalty corners to put India 2-0 up before Ramandeep Singh (22nd minute) and SV Sunil (26th minute) scored from field play for the 4-0 half-time score.

In the 12th minute, the never-say-die spirit of the South Africans saw Taine Paton smash a stunning shot into the backboard past a helpless keeper but on video referral the chance to pull one back was disallowed after the ball was adjudged to have inadvertently hit the back of Paton’s stick in the immediate build-up to his strike.

Seven minutes into the second half (42nd minute) South Africa capitalised on a much-improved start when captain Austin Smith placed a powerful slap pass straight to Paton’s stick, whose deft touch while facing away from goal left the keeper stranded (4-1).

Paton came close soon after but India came back to win a penalty corner which Pieterse saved brilliantly and the result was South Africa winning a penalty corner at the other end from the breakout, and Smith flashed his drag-flick into the top-left corner of the net for 4-2 after 47 minutes.

South Africa were on their way to winning the second-half spoils but the Indians then hit the post and soon after South Africa were down to nine men on the pitch and India 10 as the umpires banished players to the sin-bin. In all, six players went this way in a fierce encounter.

Manpreet Singh (57th minute) gave India a vital three-goal cushion (5-2) with 13 minutes left but South Africa were not done yet and hit the post not long afterwards.

With nine minutes left, both teams were back to the full complement of 11 players on the park. However, with six minutes to go, India captain Sardar Singh was lucky to escape with only a yellow card after a dangerous sliding tackle on Drummond.

Both teams were down to 10 men in the last five minutes. Keeper Rassie Pieterse, who made a number of brilliant saves in the match, was subbed with four minutes left as South Africa threw down their final card by adding an extra field player in a bid to wrest the dream for a semi-final berth out of the fire.

With one minute left, Paton won a penalty corner but India blocked Smith’s low flick and it was game over.

The SA team will play Canada for fifth place (from 10.50am SA time on Saturday).

Earlier on Thursday, both men’s captain Smith and head coach Fabian Gregory wished the SA women’s team well in their semi-final match against Australia’s Hockeyroos on Friday, starting at 1.15pm (SA time).

The second semi-final pits New Zealand against England from 3.20pm (SA time).

– Sapa