JONATHAN COOK
in Dublin
 
THE Investec South Africa women's hockey team led 1-0 at half-time through a Pietie Coetzee penalty corner in the playoff match against India at the Champions Challenge in Dublin, Ireland Friday.

The clash is to determine who plays for fifth place on Sunday, this after a desperately unlucky SA lost 3-2 on golden goal in the quarter-finals against Spain Thursday.

The score might have been 2-0 had Coetzee not most uncharcteristically missed a penalty stroke.

SA were striving for fluency in a bid to recapture the form that saw them obliterate world number nine and tournament favourites Japan 5-1 in the Pool A clash last Sunday and with 12 minutes to half-time Pietie Coetzee, world goalscoring record holder with 223 in 225 Tests going into the match, stepped up and nailed her 226th into the roof of the net from the Africans’ first penalty corner (1-0).

Six minutes from the break Coetzee near-maimed an Indian defender with another PC scorcher and SA were awarded a penalty stroke, but this time the talismanic striker’s magic touch deserted her and keeper Yogita Bali saved.
 
Inside the opening 15 minutes SA got in four opportunities, two great chances among them, but didn’t finish. At the other end, India had two chances including the first penalty corner of the match, from which the flick was turned away by alert post defender Kim Hubach.

India, ranked 11th in the world to SA’s 12th, had beaten the Africans twice in their last two encounters –at the World Cup in Argentina in September last year and the Commonwealth Games in Delhi a month later, so despite the girls in green and gold’s more impressive form going into the clash, that fact counted for very little on the day.

In the quarter-finals on Thursday India were edged 1-0 by Japan.