Hockey World Cup: India Lose To New Zealand In Crossover Match, Out Of Title Race

Hosts India made a shock exit from the FIH Men's World Cup after losing to New Zealand in sudden death in their must-win crossover match in front of a relentlessly cheering 15000 home crowd in Bhubaneswar on Sunday. The loss ended India's hopes of a Wold Cup medal after 48 years. Despite vociferous support from the jampacked Kalinga Stadium crowd, India allowed New Zealand to come back from two-goal deficit in the regulation time as the match ended at 3-3 in the regulation time.

In the penalty shootout, the scores were also tied after the first five set of strikes, and the match was finally decided via sudden death.

Captain Harmanpreet Singh had the golden chance to take India to victory in sudden death but he failed to do that as he missed the target.

Veteran goalkeeper PR Sreejesh made two saves in the shootout to rescue India after they were 2-3 down. He saved another one during the sudden death and got himself injured and Krishan Pathak replaced him in the next three rounds of strikes. Finally, Shamsher Singh missed and Sam Lane scored to hand New Zealand the win.

New Zealand will now face defending champions Belgium, who topped Pool B, in the quarterfinals here on Tuesday.

In the regulation time, India earned as many as 11 penalty corners and converted two of them while New Zealand got just two PCs.

Yet again, it was a case of ample goal-scoring opportunities for India but the forwarrds lacked finishing skills. India were on the offensive as soon as the match began with Mandeep Singh, who started despite taking a hit on his knee during training on Saturday, making a fine run into the New Zealand circle.

But India doubled the lead soon with Sukhjeet Singh scoring in the 24th minute, following India's fourth penalty