Inconsistency has been India's bane for a long time and the biggest task for Sardar Singh and Co. would be to come up with a steady performance when they take on a dangerous Belgium in the semifinal of the Hockey World league (HWl) Final, here on Saturday.
After a poor start to the tournament — a 0-3 loss to Argentina — India managed to hold Olympic champions Germany 1-1 before losing 1-3 against title-holders Netherlands. But an unpredictable India beat world no.4 Great Britain 2-1.
The up and down showing is worrying India's chief coach Roelant Oltmans. "If you ask me whether we will be able to give a performance like this (against Great Britain) again, then frankly speaking I am not sure about it," Oltmans said.
India's misfiring forwardline finally showed some promise with Talwinder Singh scoring a fine field goal and Ramandeep Singh hitting the post on one occasion against Great Britain. Young Mohammad Amir Khan too impressed with his performance.
Australia beat Dutch 3-2
World champions Australia got the better of defending champions The Netherlands 3-2 in a high-voltage first semifinal here on Friday.
Australia scored through Dylan Wotherspoon (8th minute), Daniel Beale (22nd minute) and Matt Gohdes (42nd), while Constantijn Jonker (29th) and Mirco Pruijser (33rd) were the goal getters for Netherlands, who slumped to their first defeat in the tournament.
Meanwhile, later in the day, Argentina defeated world no.4 Great Britain 4-2 to finish fifth in the tournament.