India held Pakistan to a 1-1 draw in Chandigarh todayin their must-win match which has now left them with only an opportunity tolevel the eight-match series.
The Indians needed a win to keep their hopes ofclaiming the title but the drawn encounter meant that their arch-rivalsmaintained their 3-1 lead with two matches to go. India must win both of thesegames to draw the series.
An error-prone India missed five penalty corners and asmany sitters to allow Pakistan to escape with a draw.
After Ghazanfar Ali gave Pakistan the lead in the 22ndminute, India fought back and levelled the score through Ignace Tirkey, whosestunning deflection in the 33rd minute found the net.
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But thereon, the Indians played some lacklustre hockeyto disappoint the large number of fans who had gathered to watch the Asiangiants in action.
Pakistan, needing a win to clinch the series, madetheir intentions clear as early as in the first half itself when they earned apenalty corner following a fine move on the right.
Sohail Abbas, on the threshold of breaking the worldrecord, was cheered when he readied to take the shot but the roar went louderwhen he hit the shot wide.
That was all the penalty corner king could do as hehardly got any other chance to surge ahead of Paul Litjens' tally of 267 goals.
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The Indians, playing without injured captain Dilip Tirkey, were tested by thePakistanis in the first few minutes but the hosts fought hard to keep them atbay. The Indians got into the attacking mode after the eighth minute when AriqAziz glided but just missed to deflect in a cross from the right.
Breaking the shackles, the hosts opened up their gameand made incisive moves but failed to break the Pakistani defence.
With the match growing in intensity, Pakistan stunnedthe crowd with the 22nd minute strike from a penalty corner.
However, it was not their ace drag flicker Abbas whotook the strike but Ali, probably keeping in mind Indian goalkeeper AdrianD'Souza's abilities to stop Sohail's rasping flicks.
The one goal deficit spurred India as in the next fewminutes they came close to scoring on a number of occasions.
Tirkey's reverse flick from a difficult angle hit theside bar in the 24th minute, three minutes before the same player had muffed upa chance.
Tirkey got into the circle dodging past a couple ofPakistani defenders but only to hit the ball on the rise which went well overthe post.
Egged by the capacity crowd, Tushar Khandekar and Vivek Gupta combined well tomake a dangerous move down the left but their effort was not enough toneutralise Pakistan's lead. The Indians finally made amends with just twominutes to go for the breather when Tirkey deflected in a sharp pass from afree-hit from outside the 25-yard that sent the home crowd in a frenzy.
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The home team proved to be the better side in thesecond half, dominating the proceedings from the word go but they never managedto cash in on their positional advantage.
India's poor record of penalty corner conversioncontinued as they failed to score even once from the first five set-pieces theygot. They tried everything, from drag-flicks to variation to straight hits, butnothing worked in their favour.
"We should have scored from those penalty corners,but unfortunately we could not. We missed many chances," stand-in captainViren Rasquinha said after the match.
"But we will fight to our best of abilities tosave the series now," the mid-fielder added.
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The match was well enjoyed by the local crowd whothronged to the stadium, hosting an Indo-Pak hockey Test for the first time, inlarge numbers.
PTI
