India finish eight, best performance in 16 years

New Delhi, March 12 : India ended eighth in the Hockey World Cup after they went down 2-4 to Argentina in a play-off at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here Friday.

Argentina opened the scoring through Tomas Innocente Argento (28th minute) to go 1-0 up in the first half. India found the equaliser through Sandeep Singh's (42nd) penalty stroke before Argentina's three-goal burst in three minutes took the game away from the hosts. Lucas Martin Vila (43rd, 45th) converted a penalty corner and then scored a field goal and Facundo Callioni (46th) joined the party to make it 4-1 for Argentina. Shivendra Singh (49th) pulled one back for India.

With the win, Argentina maintained their superior record against India in the World Cup as they won five times in eight meetings.

For India it was their best finish in 16 years. India came fifth in 1982 and 1994, and have only slipped thereafer. They finished ninth in 1998 and 10th in 2002.

Argentina, on the other hand, also improved by three places compared to their 10th place finish in the previous edition.

In the play-off for the fifth-sixth place, Spanish skipper Pablo Amat scored twice in the first session. The Koreans tried to come back in the second half, but the Spanish defence proved too strong as the Beijing Games silver medalist finished fifth and qualified for the Champions Trophy.

Earlier in the day, New Zealand and South Africa finished 4-4 at the end of the regulation time and were 4-4 in the shootout. In the sudden death, New Zealand goalkeeper Kyle Pontifex stopped Lloyd Madsen's strike while Black Sticks captain Dean Couzins to give his side victory.