India manages to hold New Zealand

ASHBURTON, JUNE 19.

Chasing two goals shortly after half-time, India recovered its poise and precision before sharing honours with New Zealand, each side scoring twice, in the second hockey Test here on Tuesday.

India's fightback came in the last seven minutes through penalty corner goals struck by Baljit Singh Dhillon and Gagan Ajit Singh.

India lost the first Test at Dunedin 2-3 last Saturday. Two matches remain in the tour. The Indians take the Kiwis in the third Test tomorrow at Christchurch and the final game at Auckland on Saturday.

``They put us under pressure in the second half but overall it was probably about 50-50 in possession,'' said Oscroft, the assistant coach of the Kiwi team after the match. Actually, it was a tough match, intensely fought, and on occasions became rough with not less than three Indian players getting the yellow cards.

New Zealand, ranked 16th in the world, hit the board first when Ryan Archibald flicked in. The Kiwis led 1-0 at half time. Hymie Gill enlarged the lead with a direct flick from a penalty corner early in the second half.

``They scored from different penalty corner options than they used in the first Test,'' Oscroft, said. ``They ( the Indians) might have now shown us their penalty corner options, which could be to our advantage when we get to play them at the World Cup qualifiers in Edinburgh.''

The match was played before a fairly large crowd and play began before the scheduled time to avoid the threat of icy conditions which could have made things difficult for both the teams on the water-based synthetic surface.

Coach Kevin Towns hinted that he would meet the officials of the Indian team, especially the chief coach, Cedric D'Souza regarding the yellow cards and rough play which featured the second Test. The Kiwis are expected to shuffle the combination for the third Test at Christchurch tomorrow.

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