India today crashed out of the Junior Men's Hockey World Cup after being held to a 3-3 draw by Korea in their last pool match and a disappointed chief coach Greg Clark rued that his wards "gave away" the match.
India were leading 3-1 at one stage but allowed the Koreans to come back into the match at the floodlit Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here.
The draw means both India and Korea finished their pool engagement with four points apiece but it was not enough for the home team to qualify for the quarterfinals as they needed a win today.
The draw, however, was more than enough for the Koreans to progress to the knock-out stage as they have a better goal difference than the Indians.
Korea finished second while Netherlands topped the pool with three wins from as many games. The Dutch thrashed lowly Canada 7-0 in their last league encounter earlier in the day.
"Definitely, we gave it away when you are 3-1 up. I don't think Korea played that well. We gave them lot of soft turnovers. We could have controlled the game a bit more," a visibly disappointed Clark said.
"We turned the ball over too cheaply. We did not take our chances when they came and we paid the price for it."
The Indians were also guilty of wasting too many scoring opportunities and Clark conceded that a lot of work needs to be done in the forward line.
"Yeah, together with the technical skill of finishing there also comes the mental ability to keep your mind clear and calm. So that's certainly an area we need to work on," he said.
"I think we made a lot of interceptions in the first half. But I think we rushed the ball on quite a few occasions.
