Prodigal India missed chances galore, got a goal overturned at the fag end before going down by a solitary first half penalty corner goal against 2006 silver medallists South Korea in the Asian Games women's hockey competition, here on Wednesday.
India, who went into the match with a victory over Malaysia and a defeat against Japan under their belt, dominated the entire second half after conceding an early goal to the Koreans but failure to apply the finishing touch, which cost them the match and precious points.
To their chagrin, the Indian women also saw their last-gasp goal from captain Surinder Kaur being overturned by umpire Moyano Sanchez of Argentina, who first signalled a goal, but conferred with other umpire Chen Hong of China after the Koreans protested and then overturned her own verdict.
The defeat, eighth against the Koreans since women's hockey made its Asian Games debut in 1982, has virtually ended India's hopes of a gold or a silver medal.
But the Indian women, who lost 3-5 to the Koreans when they met previously in the Asian Champions Challenge in the latter's backyard, remain in the hunt for the bronze if they finish the round-robin league third or fourth as there is a play-off for the medal between the 3rd and 4th league finishers.
India, who have lost 22 matches out of 35 played against their East Asian rivals going into on Wednesday's tie, pressed hard for the equaliser and were all over the Korean area towards the fag end of the match, in which the only goal was scored by Kim Jonghee with a penalty corner conversion.
The Indians were at the receiving end of the Korean attack in the first ten minutes before Joydeep and Kirandeep Kaur combined beautifully to tear apart the rival defence only to falter at the all-important end.
Crossing over, India were the clearly dominant outfit but a series of sitters were missed from right near the goal by captain Surinder Kaur, Saba Anjum and Rani Rampal.
The fag end, after the umpire's decision to overturn her own award of a goal, saw India earning two penalty corners in succession but both failed to bear fruit.
India have three more games to go - against Thailand (Nov 19), Kazakhstan (Nov 20) and defending champions China (Nov 22), who are aiming for a hat-trick, before the classification matches commence from November 24.
Indian coach Sandeep Somesh is confident that the team can put it across both Thailand and Kazakhstan to be firmly in the hunt for a bronze.
"We need to win two matches out of our last three. We are still in the hunt for a medal and need to finish either third or fourth. We can still do it but we are inconsistent," he said.
Somesh said the performance of the team today was far better than it was against Japan when they lost 0-3. "Our performance today was better than yesterday. We chalked out a plan yesterday but did not implement it, but today we implemented the plans well. But we missed a lot of chances," he said.
"It's a challenge for me to keep them motivated and focussed to finish among the top four in the league," he said. Somesh said that defender Vineeta Toppo, who twisted her knee early in yesterday's clash with Japan, was recovering but he would prefer to keep her out till the play-off stage, if India achieve that target.