India’s Gagan Ajit Singh (right) fights for the ball with England’s Glenn Kirkham on Thursday. (AP)

Moenchengladbach: India’s hockey World Cup campaign was thrown into disarray as the team paid the price for a pathetic display to go down 2-3 to a lowly England in a crucial pool B encounter on Thursday.

Playing in chilly and wet conditions, the Indians, who had lost by the same scoreline to Germany on Wednesday, squandered a 1-0 lead for their second defeat in the tournament, which virtually ruled them out of contention for a semi-final berth.

The 11th-ranked England, on their part, blew two penalty strokes in the first-half before James Tindall (54th) and Simon Mantell (57th, 61st) put home penalty corners to give their side an unbeatable lead.

Shivendra Singh gave India a 1-0 lead with a 29th minute strike and five minutes from close, skipper Dilip Tirkey found the boards from a penalty corner.

The Indians were distinctly lucky to survive the penalty strokes in the first-half during which England messed up the chances that came their way.

Though India did most of the attacking, the sting was missing at the finish. The best of them was in the 12th minute when Tejbir Singh moving in from the left set up Hari Prasad. The latter could not beat goalkeeper James Fair, but the action that followed brought India’s only penalty corner of the half. However, Fair deflected Arjun Halappa’s drag-flick.

Then followed a period of end-to-end play with England earning their first penalty stroke following a stick-check on Richard Alexander, but skipper Ben Hawes pushed weakly into goalkeeper Bharat Chhetri’s pads with the custodian diving to his right.

Heartened by the reprieve, India swung into attack with Arjun Halappa putting through Gagan Ajit Singh inside the circle. The striker deftly passed to Khandkar whose firm attempt to far post was pushed in by Shivendra.

After the break, England made determined bids, forcing a succession of penalty corners, but the Indians came through with Chhetri bringing off a couple of good saves.

However, the persistent pressure finally told on India who were reduced to 10 men following a yellow card suspension of Hari Prasad.

India coach Vasudevan Baskaran reaffirmed his faith in the players despite his team’s second consecutive loss.

“I have full confidence in the team and I believe that this bunch can develop into a strong unit,” he said after the match.

“Obviously, it was a disappointing result, but then, we committed far too many mistakes today, we repeatedly gave away the ball in the midfield. Overall, we played soft hockey, especially in the defence where our tackling was not up to the mark,” Baskaran said.

(PTI)