Sometimes the only difference between victory and defeat boils down to how a team uitilises its chances. The Indian team failed miserably on this count and paid the penalty, going down 2-5 to South Africa in a hard fought encounter in the FIH Olympic Hockey Qualifiers on Wednesday.

Dirkie Chamberlain (13th, 32nd min, 58th min) scored a hat-trick, while Sulette Damons (53rd min, 67th min) grabbed a brace. Asunta Lakra (23rd min), Soundarya Yendalla (52nd min) scored for India. India has now slipped to third and must beat Italy in their last pool encounter in order to make sure of a final berth.

South Africa took the lead off their third penalty corner with Dirkie tapping in the rebound after Indian goal keeper Savita had blocked the direct attempt by Kate Woods. Indian skipper Lakra found the equalizer from India’s third penalty corner.

After a period of sustained pressure on the Indian goal, the Proteas managed to regain the lead. Savita blocked an attempt from Shelley Russell but Dirkie scored off the rebound.

Joydeep Kaur’s attempt off a penalty corner found the net in the 47th minute but the goal was disallowed as the shot was too high. Soundarya brought India back on level terms soon with a nice goal, but the Proteas hit back immediately as Damons scored with a reverse flick after a fast attack down the left.

Dirkie put the game beyond India’s reach when she completed her hat-trick with an accurate deflection off a shot from outside the Indian ‘D’ by Nicole Terblanche.

Lauren Penny failed to punish the Indian defence who had left her totally unmarked in front of goal in the 66th minute as she hit wide off a nice pass from Sulette Damons. But Damons made up for the Proteas a few seconds later, pushing home a through from Kathleen Taylor. The Indian defenders had only themselves to blame as they had failed to pick up Damons’ run.