Indian Women Hockey team crashed to a two-three defeat against Belgium in the Olympic qualifier match being played at Kazan, Russia. The two consecutive defeat of India, first against Netherlands Antilles and on Tuesday 22 April  2008 against Belgium has put on question the chances of India to save a birth for the Beijing Olympics. The Indian women players squandered a dozen chances of scoring a goal in the match. The Indian team received at least ten penalty corner chances.  

 

The Belgian team opened its score account within a minute of the beginning of the match. Surinder Kaur of India leveled the score through a penalty corner conversion in the 13th minute. India even enjoyed the lead as Ritu Rani scored another goal in the 16th minute. For a long time India maintained the lead but in the 46th minute, Belgium’s Astrid Vervaet scored an equalizer. After that Indians struggled hard and finally in the 58^th minute, Gaellle Valcke scored the winning goal for Belgium.

 

India currently has just three points in its kitty after they won the first match played against Russia. The lead is maintained by US with nine points, followed by Netherlands Antilles with six points. India will now take on US on Thursday. Only one amongst the six teams playing at Kazan will make it to the Beijing Olympics in the month of August.