New Delhi: India had to be contend with a
fourth place finish after a rollicking start to their campaign
as the hosts lost to lowly ranked Kazakhstan 7-33 for the
third place play-off match in the Asian Rugby Sevens
Invitational tournament which concluded here today.
Indian team, fresh from their three weeks stint in New
Zealand, lacked attacking game and speed shown in the previous
outings on the opening day as Kazakh ruggers used their backs
and forward line as an offensive weapon to outclass their much
fancied rivals at the Delhi University North Campus ground.
Particularly, defence appeared to be an area of concern
for captain Naseer Hussain, which was on regular intervals
infringed by well-built Kazakh players who gave the Indians
little chance to make any noteworthy moves.
Hrishikesh, Amit, Rohit, Surinder, Balvinder and Pritam
scored for India, while for Khazakhstan Mashurov, Abdrazakov,
Popalavskiy, Ivanchenko, Akymbekov, Ramanov, Konev, Zakharov
and Suleimenov sounded the scoreboard.
"We have not played to our potential in the last two
games. After losing the semifinal game to Sri Lanka, we were
confident of a third-place finish but things didn't go as
planned," Indian captain Naseer Hussain said.
Earlier today, the toppers of Pool-B, India had routed
the challenge of arch-rivals Pakistan 38-5 in the
quarterfinal, but lost to Sri Lanka 19-34 in the final-four
clash.
Indian ruggers toyed with the diminutive Pakistani
players and gave them no chance to even get close to the home
side goalpost.
Malaysia went on to win the title defeating Sri Lanka
38-5 in the summit clash of the eight-nations tournament.
Yesterday, Indian ruggers had won all their three
encounters defeating Uzbekistan, Iran and Brunei.
The tournament was inaugurated by Commonwealth
Games Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi in the
presence of Rugby India president Pramod Khanna and other
officials.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, April 03, 2010, 17:51