Johannesburg: India conceded a goal in the penultimate minute on a penalty corner to allow Belgium to secure a 3-3 draw in their opening outing at the Champions Challenge hockey tournament in South Africa on Saturday.
In an evenly-matched Pool A encounter, India sprung to life with three second-half goals in the space of 12 minutes, but twice allowed the Belgians to draw level after falling behind. India's goals came from Rupinder Pal Singh (45th minute), Chingelnsana Singh (48th) and Vokkaliga Raghunath (57th) as they had a good chance to start with a victory, until a 69th-minute penalty corner rebound by Xavier Rekinger helped Belgium to a share of the points. Belgium's earlier goals were scored by Alexandre de Paeuw (31st minute) and Tom Boon (55th).
Belgium, among the few teams in this competition who have already secured their passage to the London Olympics, are one of the strongest sides.
Belgium opened the scoring in the 31st minute through Alexandre de Paeuw, who capitalised on a diagonal ball and sent in a reverse hit with only goalkeeper Bharat Chetri to beat, giving the Belgians a 1-0 lead at half-time.
After Rupinder made no impression with the first penalty corner in the 44th minute, his flick in a goalmouth scrimmage a minute later helped India equalise. India were up 2-1 in the 48th minute when Chingelnsana was rewarded for chasing a loose ball that led to a defensive lapse and the shot went off his stick past bewildered goalkeeper David van Rysseberghe.
Belgium restored parity through a 55th-minute penalty corner strike by Tom Boon, but India were again ahead in the 57th minute as Raghunath sent a grounder drag-flick into the boards.
Pressing hard, the Belgians benefited from some display of nerves by the Indian defence, allowing them two penalty corners in the last two minutes. The third Belgian goal came when Xavier Rekinger's reverse drive went in after goalkeeper Chetri had blocked two previous shots on the penalty corner.
In other matches in Pool B, Pan American champions Argentina were held to a 2-2 draw by Japan, who two months ago had made the semi-finals of the inaugural Asian Champions Trophy in Ordos, while Canada prevailed 3-1 over Guangzhou Asian Games silver medalists Malaysia.
Fine second-half deflections by Sukhwinder Singh and Iain Smythe earned Canada their victory after being level 1-1 with Malaysia at half-time. 2-1 winners Canada, whose loss to Argentina in the Pan-American competition has denied them direct entry to the London Olympics, are preparing for the Olympic qualifying competition in New Delhi, where they will be India's most formidable opponents.
Meanwhile, India team coach, Michael Nobbs said he was satisfied with the performance in the opening match, though he would have liked to emerge from the game with a victory.
"I'm happy with the boys' show. We played lot of good passages, but there were some execution errors," said Nobbs. "I think Belgium are a good team and put forth their best show, so I'm pleased that our boys came out level."
India's next outing on Sunday will be against hosts South Africa, who began with a 3-1 victory over Poland, a team that arrived in Johannesburg only a day ahead of the tournament.
Penalty corner striker Justin Reid-Ross converted two penalty corners in the second and the 60th minutes, while Lloyd Norris-Jones scored a field goal in the 31st for South Africa. Poland pulled one back in the 43rd minute through Miroslaw Juszczak's penalty corner attempt.
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