Extremely disappointing to lose close matches: Sardar Singh

The Hague: India captain Sardar Singh hoped his boys would bounce back against Spain Wednesday following back-to-back losses against Belgium and England after conceding last minute goals in the FIH Hockey World Cup. Sardar admitted that the team fumbled in the last minutes against England and Belgium. “The team has put up a very competitive challenge against both the higher ranked teams Belgium and England; it was only towards the end of both the games that we fumbled and gave away the match,” said Sardar after a training session here. “Yes, it is extremely disappointing to have lost such matches where the team had put in so much effort. We are working on our mistakes in team meetings and practice sessions,” he added. [caption id=“attachment_1556169” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sardar Singh’s team has lost it in the last moments in both games. Getty[/caption] India coach Terry Walsh was happy with the way his boys performed against England but was surely not happy with the end result. “The boys have delivered a great game of hockey yesterday though the end result was disappointing. We are working on our strategy by analysing the mistakes made in the last two games and will try to change our game accordingly. These changes will also apply on rotation of players and goal scoring strategies. Team is working on its tactics in the training sessions for the next match and we are determined to give a great performance for the upcoming matches against Spain, Australia and Malaysia,” he said. IANS