Sandeep converted all three penalty corners but the resilient Kiwis scored twice in the first half and as many after the breather to walk away with full points.

For the winners, Andrew Hayward, Simon Child, Phillip Burrows and Gareth Brooks scored. India led 2-0 with Sandeep converting both penalty corners. Hayward then reduced the margin from a corner. Child then deflected home a pass just in time to go into the breather at 2-2. In the second half, the Kiwis ruled the roost with Philip and Brooks slamming back-to-back goals to snatch the lead. But India managed to score through Sandeep Singh.

‘Not involved’

Meanwhile, Joaquim Carvalho on Thursday reiterated that he was not involved in any conspiracy and did not ask three players and the team manager to skip the Azlan Shah tournament, adds PTI from Chennai.

“The selection committee members should check the facts before accusing me of having prevented players from playing. Charlesworth had also suggested that we should be sending a development team to Malaysia to give exposure to juniors.

“There seems to be a clear case of misunderstanding and miscommunication. When Zafar Iqbal called to say that a fax is being sent to the hotel, we were about to leave the hotel for the airport to return home,” he said.

“R K Shetty was not to join the team to Malaysia as per the original plan since there is a wedding in his family.” He also expressed surprise that the committee members were not aware about the presence of Ramesh Parameswaran as assistant coach of the team in Malaysia. “Tushar and Baljit have sought leave to write their final year exams,” he said.