The Indian men's hockey team's FIH Pro League title hopes went up in smoke after suffering a hard-fought 1-2 defeat against the Netherlands in the second match of the two-leg tie in Rotterdam on Sunday. India had lost 1-4 to the Dutch in the shoot-out on Saturday after both the sides finished 2-2 at the end of the regulation 60 minutes. The Indians needed an outright win over the Netherlands to have an outside chance of clinching the tile, but it was not to be.
The Netherlands won the FIH Pro League in the men's section with 35 points from 14 games, with two games still in hand.
Olympic champions Belgium finished second with 35 points from 16 games, while India occupied the third spot with 30 points from 16 matches.
The Indians started on a strong note, taking the lead inside 30 seconds with a brilliant field goal by Abhishek.
Abhishek collected the ball in the right flank and dodged past four defenders with brilliant stickwork to push the ball past Netherlands' second goalkeeper Mauritzs Visser.
The Indians put the Dutch defence under persistent pressure from the start and dominated the early share of exchanges.
But the Netherlands forged their way into the game by levelling the scores in the seventh minute through a penalty corner conversion by Jip Janssen.
It was end-to-end hockey between the world No. 3 Netherlands and world No. 4 India, with both the teams matching each other stick for stick.
The Netherlands were patient inside the India circle, and by doing so, secured another penalty corner in the 11th minute, which Indian goalkeeper PR Sreejesh kept at bay.
The Dutchman secured three more penalty corners but failed to breach the Indian defence.
In the 16th minute India secured a PC but Harmanpreet Singh's flick
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