India notch up consolation win

India salvaged some pride by winning the inconsequential fourth and final hockey test match 4-1 against New Zealand before a holiday crowd in Auckland on Saturday.

Having already conceded the series 0-2, India played as a well-knit team to finish their campaign on a positive note by notching up the consolation win.

Despite their poor performance against New Zealand, the Indians gained much-needed exposure before the World Cup qualifiers in Edinburgh after this outing.

Smarting under a 1-2 loss at Wellington on Thursday, it was young forward Gagar Ajit Singh who infused life in the otherwise dead match with a superb hat-trick for India.

After captain Baljit Singh Dhillon was successful with the penalty stroke, awarded for an infringement inside the striking area, the nippy forward, Gagan increased the lead to 2-0 and then went on to achieve the only hat-trick of the four match series.

Close to the hooter, New Zealand's Umesh Parag scored the lone goal for the home team.

Indian coach Cedric D'souza was all praise for his boys."The Kiwis were straddling around with their heads high having won the series but we wanted to teach them a lesson. My boys' superiority in all round play was exibited.... the result was because of fewer mistakes that we committed today."

Summing up the twin tour of Malaysia and New Zealand, D'souza said, "it was a good experience and the boys have learnt a lot from the recent matches. We made lot of changes in our approach to attacking game and there was improvement in our game match after match".

He said both the Malaysians and the Kiwis have shown tremendous improvement in their games and they are among the toughest teams in the world. "The confidence in our boys has gone up and some of the youngsters in our team have become men now," D'Souza said.

"Our team is a well-knit one and such tours provide the best of opportunities for our players to gain confidence and adapt themselves to perform better against best teams in the world," he said.

India will play an exhibition match on Sunday against New Zealand-Indians, before leaving for home on June 25.