Monchengladbach: Coach Vasudevan Bhaskaran blamed India's perennial weakness to choke under pressure in the dying minutes for the team's miserable run in the hockey World Cup.
"We have seen for many years the Indian teams unable to withstand pressure in the last 10 minutes and it was the case here today. We were leading 1-0 with six minutes left, but conceded the equaliser. I am extremely disappointed that we could not win today," he said after South Africa held India to a 1-1 draw on Saturday.
Baskaran said squandering half-chances in the crucial match also cost India dear.
"In a high-intensity match like the one today, it is important that we convert half-chances. We failed to do so and also our inability to hold on to the ball in the final minutes of a game cost us three points today," the coach said.
When queried about the absence of experienced full-back Kanwalpreet Singh from the game, Baskaran said: "He had two bad games (including a yellow card against Germany) and his body language was not good. So we decided to try Raghunath for whom it was a big moment, making his senior international debut."
The coach said he was happy with Raghunath's performance. "He had just one attempt with penalty corner, but otherwise, I was quite happy with his showing today," Baskaran said.
Goalkeeper Adrian D'Souza said the players would try and regroup for the two tough matches next week, against Korea (Monday) and the Netherlands (Tuesday).
"Of course we are all disappointed, but we will sit together and talk about where we went wrong. Hopefully, we will play better in the remaining two league matches," he said.
South African coach Paul Revington felt that his team should have come away with three points.
"Initially, we were under pressure and made mistakes. But we played better in the second-half and if we had one more penalty corner, perhaps we would have got the match-winner," he said.
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