London, July 30 (IANS) The Indian hockey team put on a spirited display but went down 2-3 against the Netherlands in their opening match in group B of the London Olympics at the Riverbank Arena here Monday.
Robert van der Horst opened the scoring for the Dutch, the World No.3, in the 19th minute and Roderick Weusthof (28th) and Mink van der Weerden (50th) converted penalty corners.
Dharamveer Singh (44th) and Shivendra Singh (47th) sounded the boards for India. It was an inspiring perfomance by the Indian team as they cam from two goals down to score twice in a space of three minutes to level the match.
But an infringement by Sardara Singh inside the circle gave the Dutch a crucial penalty corner in the 50th minute. Van der Weerden converted the penalty corner with a powerful shot that earned the winner for the Netherlands.
