India draw with Korea, finish last

India were held to a 2-2 draw by Korea in their last match of the Rabobank Trophy hockey tournament in Amstelveen on Sunday.

In the second match, on the concluding day of the tournament, hosts Holland defeated Australia 3-1 to top the round-robin league and claim the title.

Korea made a sedate start allowing India to garner most of the initial possession. But they soon found their rhythm and scored on their first counter-attack in the eighth minute through Jong Ho Seo.

The goal increased the pressure on India, who had a disappointing tournament. They lost 2-5 to Holland and 1-3 to Australia in their previous matches. They were a disjointed lot in the early going and it wasn’t very difficulty for Korea to blunt their attacks.

But they regrouped and levelled the scores. They then went one step further and claimed the lead. India earned a penalty-corner in the 58th minute but Tirkey’s effort was saved by the Korean goalkeeper. However, the Indian captain made no mistake on the penalty-corner earned immediately after and netted much to the relief of the Indian camp.

The Indians maintained the tempo and, a minute later, seasoned veteran Dhanraj Pillay put his team ahead -- 2-1. But their joy was shortlived as in the 61st minute a simple push by Jong Hyun Hwang saw the Koreans restore parity.

India kept pressing for the winner and launched wave after wave of attack but the Koreans held strong.

The other match was keenly contested. The Dutch played to a plan and scored twice through penalty-corner ace Bram Lomans, although his first goal came from a penalty stroke. Matthijs Brouwer scored the other goal for the hosts just before half-time while Jaime Dwyer, who emerged the tournament's top scorer -- and most promising player -- with a tally of four goals, scored the consolation goal for the Aussies.

The Netherlands finished on top with seven points, followed by Australia with four. South Korea had three and India one.

South Korea won the Fair Play award.