India sends Belgium packing

Strong crowd support enables the hosts pull off a 1-0 victory via sudden death

Uthra Ganesan


Cock-a-hoop: The Indians celebrate their quarterfinal victory over Belgium on Wednesday. 

The Belgians had been unbeaten so far, but then they had not yet played in front of a packed, vocal 10,000-strong crowd supporting the opposition. In the end, the crowad at the Kalinga Stadium was the ‘12th man’ that ended the Olympic silver medallist’s dreams of advancing further in the Hockey World League Finals here on Wednesday, going down against an aggressive India 1-0 in sudden death after being tied 2-2 in the shootout and 3-3 in regulation time.