Paris: India scrambled to salvage a point against 2016 Olympic champions Argentina, whose robust defence frustrated the Indian attack until the penultimate minute when skipper Harmanpreet Singh finally produced a drag-flick that ended in the net at the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium on Monday.

Harmanpreet’s rasping flick flew off an onrushing defender’s foot to beat seasoned custodian Tomas Santiago, who until then had led the robust Argentine defence in keeping the Indian strikers at bay in the Group B match. The 59th-minute equaliser allowed the Indians to heave a sigh of relief and released the immense pressure on them as the rivals pulled back additional players to pack their territory and defend the lead they had gained in the 22nd minute through Lucas Martinez’s field goal.

The Argentines stepped off the pitch ruing the wasted penalty stroke soon after half-time when Maico Casella Schuth angled his shot wide of the target.

Ahead of the desperate last raid that produced four successive penalty corners, India had thrown caution to the winds and even taken off their goalkeeper to add an extra player upfront in the last three minutes. Eventually, they were rewarded for their territorial dominance with the goal from the ninth penalty corner. Even as the rival defenders kept blocking Harmanpreet’s direct shots, India decided not to unveil any indirect penalty corner variations as yet.

Harmanpreet had converted a penalty stroke in the 69th minute to earn India a 3-2 victory over New Zealand in their opening game on Saturday. Despite their wayward shooting that led to plenty of frustration, India find themselves with four points from two outings as they go into a relatively easy fixture against Ireland on Tuesday.

This draw should facilitate India’s passage into the quarterfinals, where the draw ought to favour the team that finishes higher in their preliminary group. Indian strikers need to raise their game against Ireland, who kept Tokyo Olympics silver medallists Australia on tenterhooks before losing 1-2.

Defending champions Belgium and Australia now have two straight wins. If India are to entertain hopes of rising above the third spot in the group, they will need to drastically improve their goal-scoring form. Against Argentina, there was hardly any baseline running and the shooting was wayward when they did get through a 25-yard territory packed with seven defenders always.

Argentina’s game-plan was to counter-attack. Against an India team pressing hard, it produced dividends for Argentina, who had lost 0-1 to Australia in their previous outing.

Abhishek Kumar launched the game with a fifth minute reverse drive that rebounded off the cross-bar, but a lack of cohesion thereafter affected India’s scoring chances. Argentina had the full measure of the Indian attack, pulling back players to thwart them and slow down their pace.

Argentina’s robust tracking and aggressive running kept the Indian defence on tenterhooks. Three Harmanpreet penalty corners were padded away by the goalkeeper before Argentina had their first look at the Indian goal, and they were rewarded with a goal. Martinez darted in from the right flank, got past two tentative defenders and had a shy at the goal. The ball went in off goalkeeper PR Sreejesh’s stick.

Surging ahead against the run of play, Argentina produced more counter-attacks that caused some trouble for the Indian defence, but the story of the match was India’s inability to weave past the hard-tackling Argentine defenders.

Two minutes before half-time, Jarmanpreet Singh received a fine aerial ball in the scoring zone. He had the time and space to take a crack at the goal, but muffed the chance failing to connect with a wild swing. Early in the second half, India had two men within hand-shaking proximity of Santiago, but the alert custodian cleared the ball for a corner.

Soon after, Argentina came close to stretching the lead after Schuth’s rising penalty corner shot struck Jarmanpreet and the umpire blew for a penalty stroke. Schuth though shot wide.

Abhishek could have had a shy at the goal after receiving a pass on top of the circle from Lalit Upadhyay, who had received a fine aerial ball from Hardik Singh. Abhishek didn’t attempt a flash strike and instead braced for a reverse hit. But by now, his angle to the goal had been covered by the defenders.

After taking off the goalkeeper, India launched a concerted late attack with Sunit getting the ball on the top of circle on the left flank. His rising shot, however, posed no danger. Then came the series of four penalty corners that ended with Harmanpreet’s equaliser.

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