Women's Hockey: India lose an eventful penultimate clash at Marlow

The Indian women's team conceded three second half goals to let slip their shot at a late comeback as they went 4-2 down to a higher-ranked Great Britain side in the penultimate fixture of their preparatory tour of England today.

As their third clash of the ongoing series got underway, both teams looked pretty confident in their strides. Having recovered from the initial hiccups on foreign soil, the Indians, today, made life much harder for their opponents who struggled to foray into the attacking third while possession swung both ways.

The Britons still managed to find a breakthrough in the first quarter itself, through a successful penalty-corner driven home by Holcombe defender Sam Quek. Despite conceding early once again, the Indian women refused to be intimidated and continued to press forward in numbers to fetch the all-important equalizer in the second quarter.

The needful was achieved in the 22nd minute by virtue of a spectacular Rani Rampal strike from open play which levelled the scores. The star forward executed a brilliant finish in her signature style to carry us into the midway break with the two sides evenly poised at 1-1.

In an eventful second half, fortunes kept switching ends until the home team emerged stronger over the visitors, courtesy a late surge deep into the fourth quarter. Georgie Twigg and Giselle Ansley were the next Britishers to get their names on the scoresheet before Indian forward Vandana Katariya reduced the deficit with a wonderfully worked conversion.

Trailing 2-3 with the dying minutes left on the clock, India's hopes were crushed as the opponents' prolific striker Alex Danson found the net to stretch their lead to an unassailable 4-2.

With Monday's final match of the tour remaining, coach Neil Hawgood would now have to deal with his side's consistency issues across the four quarters of a contest, before they head for their upcoming ties against Australia and Japan ahead of the summer Olympics in Rio.