Indian hockey eves draw second match against Spain

 Madrid: The second of the five-match series between the Indian women's hockey team and Spain ended in a 1-1 draw here at the Consejo Superior de Deportes Hockey Stadium last evening.It was a match of two halves as hosts Spain dominated the match in the first two quarters, but the Indian team made a comeback in the latter two quarters.

It was Spain's Berta Bonastre (14'), who opened the scoring, but India's Anupa Barla cancelled out her goal in the 54th minute which meant that the match ended in a well-fought draw.The opening quarter saw both the teams vie for possession in midfield and creating a few chances.

It was the hosts who managed to take the lead in the 14th minute as their 26-year-old forward Betra Bonastre found herself in space and scored in her second consecutive match to put the pressure on the visitors.

World number 10 India started the second quarter well and had a couple of chances, but could not manage to beat the Spanish goalkeeper Maria Ruiz. The Indian midfield made sure that they won back possession quickly to put pressure on the hosts, but the hosts kept up a resolute defensive structure to take their 1-0 lead into half-time.

India started to get into rhythm in the third quarter with the defence keeping out Spain's efforts and converting the defence into attack quickly.A strong third quarter performance from the Indian team saw them knocking on the hosts' door, with Skipper Rani coming close to finding the equalizer in the latter minutes of the quarter.

India's chief coach Sjoerd Marijne replaced goalkeeper Savita with Swati at the start of the fourth quarter. The world number 10 team continued playing some attacking hockey in the last quarter as well and put constant pressure on the hosts, which saw the visitors earn an equaliser in the 54th minute when Anupa Barla's deflected shot went past Spanish goalkeeper Maria Ruiz into the back of the net.

The Indian team could have scored a late winner as they were high on confidence in the closing stages of the match, however Maria Ruiz came to the World No. 11 team's rescue to keep the scores levelled at 1-1.The two teams will play the third of their five matches on Friday.