Ajittery India crashed to a 2-5 defeat against Germany for their third straight reverse in Group B of the Olympic men’s hockey competition yesterday.

The Germans, while recording their third consecutive win, gave a fine exhibition of their efficiency based on strong basics, the Indians, after an enthusiastic 15 minutes at the start, simply caved in under pressure.

Leading the German charge was 20-year old Florian Fuchs with three strikes (7th, 16th, 37th) and Oliver Korn (24th) and Christopher

Wesley (33rd) chipped in with one apiece while India’s goals came from Ramachandra Raghunath, whose 14th minute drag-flick got deflected into the net, and Tushar Khandekar (62nd).

While Germany and the Netherlands are virtually assured of semi-final berths with nine points apiece, India are out of medal contention and have to be content to play for minor positions regardless of their results against South Korea and Belgium in their remaining two league games.

The Indians showed a lot of dash and flair in the first quarter when they had the German defence under pressure and even struck the equaliser, but faded away once the defending champions got going.

As always, India’s game was all about instinct and individual skills rather than any structure or plan.