Indian men’s hockey team suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Australia in the first test match.
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The Indian men’s hockey team was expected to give a tough challenge to the strong Australian team. But nothing like this was seen in the first match of the five-Test series in Perth on Saturday and the visiting team had to face a crushing defeat of 1-5.
The Australian team maintained dominance from the beginning till the end of the game. The Indian team performed some well in the last quarter but by then it was too late. For Australia, Tom Wickham (20th, 38th minute) scored two goals, while Tim Brand (3rd), Joel Rintala (37th) and Flynn Ogilvie (57th) scored one goal each. The only goal for India was scored by Gurjant Singh in the 47th minute.
The Australian team made its intentions clear as soon as the game started and scored the first goal in the third minute itself. Brand received a long pass and scored past India’s experienced goalkeeper PR Sreejesh. Even after this, Australia kept the Indian defense under pressure. He got his first penalty corner in the eighth minute but this time Sreejesh made a good save.
Australia got a second penalty corner a minute later but this time too Sreejesh blocked Rintala’s shot. Due to a mistake by the Indian defence, Australia increased its lead to 2-0 in the fifth minute of the second quarter and maintained it till the intermission. Australia continued its aggressive attitude in the second half also. In the seventh minute of the third quarter, Rintala scored by deflecting a reverse hit from Kai Willot. Soon after, Wickham scored his second goal and fourth goal for Australia with a sharp shot from the right corner.
Trailing by four goals, the Indians showed some urgency but failed to create chances. India came close to scoring twice in the third quarter but Australia goalkeeper Andrew Charter easily thwarted his attempts. Australia won a penalty corner at the beginning of the fourth quarter but could not take advantage of it. India counter-attacked soon after and Gurjant was successful in scoring a pass from Mohammad Raheel.
India made some good moves after this but could not make a dent in Australia’s defence. After this, India won two consecutive penalty corners but captain Harmanpreet Singh could not score on them. Australia won a penalty corner three minutes from time, which Ogilvie converted. The second test match will be played between these two teams on Sunday. India and Australia are playing this series in preparation for the Paris Olympics.
Disclaimer: IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.
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