Hawke’s Bay player Sean Findlay stars in Black Sticks World Cup sensation

Sean Findlay during the FIH Hockey Men's World Cup match between New Zealand and Chile at Birsa Munda International Hockey Stadium last week. Photo / WorldSportPics

Hawke’s Bay player Sean Findlay was player of the match on Monday as the New Zealand Black Sticks bolted into the FIH Men’s World Cup hockey quarterfinals with a dramatic shootout win over home nation and World top-five side India.

Coming from 0-2 down midway just before the end of the second quarter of the game in front of 18,000 fans in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, and 1-3 with three minutes to go in the third, it was Findlay who came to the party big-time with the equalising goal 11 minutes from fulltime, and then two further goals as the Black Sticks scored a 5-4 win in an 18-shot shootout.

New Zealand now faces a quarterfinal starting at 7pm on Wednesday (2.30am Thursday NZ time) against direct qualifier and World No. 2 side Belgium, which beat Korea and Japan and drew with Germany in pool play.

The Black Sticks qualified for the crossover match quarterfinals qualifier against India as just third in its pool, with a win over first-time World Cup nation Chile, and losses to World No. 3 the Netherlands and mid-ranked Malaysia.

After today’s triumph, the just-turned-21 former Taradale High School pupil Findlay told championships media: “We did it the hard way, coming back from goals down and with the missed opportunities early in the shootout, as well.

“But this team has great fighting spirit and we just gave it our all, and it’s a great start to the knockout stage of the tournament,” he said.

Again, all three Black Sticks from Hawke’s Bay played in the match, with Findlay in the midfield, and former Napier Boys’ High School pupils Sam Hiha and Dominic Dixon among the strikers and in goal, respectively, with coach Greg Nicol also having spent 14 years in Hawke’s Bay until his appointment to the national job required him to be based in Auckland.

Dixon told Hawke’s Bay Today the match, the atmosphere and the result was a “surreal experience”, and that former New Zealand Under-21 Player of the Year Findlay played “unbelievably well”.

In a game in which each side scored one goal from the field and two from penalty corners, India were dominant in the 15 minutes of the first quarter in terms of territory and possession and big chances, although there was no score.

New Zealand had a huge chance to start the second quarter, but a shot attempt went wide by narrow margin, and India capitalised soon afterwards with a quick counter that was smashed in from the right by Upadhyay Lalit Kumar in the 17th minute.

India added a second goal seven minutes later as a Harmanpreet drag flick was saved by the keeper, but the rebound looped up in the air and Singh Sukhjeet smashed the high volley into an open goal.

The Black Sticks had their best opportunity to score just before the half, as Findlay found Simon Child on the left baseline, and his pass across the face of the Indian goal was tapped in by Sam Lane to bring New Zealand back into the game.

Both teams traded a goal each in the third quarter, with India scoring first via a Varun Kumar penalty corner that snuck through the legs of Dixon, but New Zealand pulled back to within one again with Kane Russell beating an Indian defender from a penalty corner of his own.

New Zealand turned up the heat in the final quarter as India conceded a penalty corner in the 50th minute, and while the attempted flick from Russell did not make the contact he wanted, the follow-up shot by Lane was brilliantly turned in by Findlay, with his back to the goal.

The final 10 minutes were filled with non-stop action as India failed to capitalise on their penalty corner opportunities, while Krishan Pathak was brilliant in stopping New Zealand shots on target, including once in the final second of the game to take the game to a shootout.

The shootout was a nervous affair, with both sides at two stages having shots that missed when the goal would have won the game.