C'wealth: A disappointing win for India

New Delhi/Melbourne: It was one win that the Indian hockey contingent at the Melbourne games will be disappointed with.

Because, though the team beat South Africa in a prelim hockey match, they just couldn't qualify for the semis.

Needing at least a four-goal win to have a shot at a semi-final berth, the Indians just scored two goals and defeated South Africa in their third Group-A preliminary hockey match.

After Sandeep Singh had put India ahead in the 5th minute of the fisr half, Tushar Khandekar scored the second off a counter-attack.

The Indians hoped for a miracle to take them through to the last four as Pakistan took on Malaysia in the other match.

However, the Pak-Maalysia turned out to be a potboiler of a contest. With 11 goals in 70 mins, Pakistan won narrowly by a 6-5 score.

Malaysia fought back after being 1-4 down in the first 20 minutes and then 2-5 early in the second half to make it 5-5 before Rehan Butt scored Pakistan's winner nine minutes before the final whistle.

Malaysian captain Kuhan Shanmuganathan was his team's hero in defeat, banging in four penalty corners to keep Pakistan on their toes in the thrilling encounter.

Pakistan topped group B with 10 points while Malaysia and India finished with seven points each and also had the same goal difference of plus-8.

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Malaysia squeaked through to the semi-finals by scoring 16 goals in the competition against India's 14 - making Shanmuganathan's four-goal effort on Wednesday even more crucial.

Pakistan and Malaysia will know their semi-final opponents after the last round of group A matches later on Wednesday when Australia play New Zealand and England take on Canada.

Olympic champions Australia currenly lead the group with nine points, followed by England and New Zealand on six points each.

With this, Pakistan and Malaysia, both qualified for the semi-finals, Malaysia with a better goal average than India.

Shooting glory continues

And even as hockey team struggles, Indian shooters continue to get glory. Sharp-shooter Samresh Jung, who has won five gold medals, has equaled the record of swimmer Hylay Lewis who also won five golds in 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland.

Commonwealth Medal Tally