India lose match & top spot to Great Britain

CHENNAI: Great Britain leapfrogged India to the top of the Pro League leaderboard after the former’s 4-2 win over the latter on Saturday. The visitors, fresh off a close 1-2 defeat to Belgium 24 hours earlier, stuck to the new manager’s plan of building up play from the back and maintaining defensive structure over directness but lost out in the big moments to suffer a 4-2 loss.

India had restored parity at 1-1 and had keeper PR Sreejesh to thank as he saved a stroke but the hosts were able to tighten their grip on the game as they scored two quick-fire goals at the beginning of the third quarter. Harmanpreet Singh’s men halved that deficit but with India coming out to attack in the fourth quarter, Great Britain put the game to bed with minutes remaining on the clock.

While this has been a less-than-ideal start to the Craig Fulton era, the Pro League is largely a place to experiment with, even against high-calibre opposition. One silver lining when compared to Friday’s defeat is the way they maintained their structure.

Captain Harmanpreet maintained that in his post-match thoughts: “We played better than yesterday, we had better control in our structure,” he said. “I think there is room for us to improve in our defence. They scored two goals from the baseline, that is something we must watch out for and get better at defending.” India’s Pro League European tour continues with two matches against Belgium and Great Britain next weekend.