Oz thrash India but aren’t happy

Ipoh (Malaysia), April 7 

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The Indian defence crumbled under the onslaught of a rampaging Australia as they were handed a 5-1 thrashing by the world champions in their second league fixture of the 25th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup here today.

Eight-time winners Australia launched their campaign to reclaim the title they lost to New Zealand last year with a dominant performance against an Indian side seeking to provide exposure to several youngsters.

Blake Govers (5th minute), Jacob Whetton (13th), Eddie Okkenden (20th), Simon Orchard (25th) and Matt Ghodes (53rd) scored for Australia, who have brought virtually their full-strength squad to prepare for the Olympic Games.

India’s lone goal came through a penalty corner conversion by Rupinder Pal Singh in the 8th minute.

This was Australia’s first outing in the round-robin league, while India prevailed 2-1 over Japan yesterday in an unimpressive campaign opener.

India paid the penalty for poor clearance and yawning gaps in their circle, which presented Australia two of their five goals.

Starting with four circle penetrations in the initial 10 minutes, the Indians failed to capitalise on an early chance when SV Sunil went too far ahead and failed to collect a diagonal ball from Nikkin Thimmaiah in the third minute.

Surprise element

Australia opened the scoring in the fifth minute through Govers, whose stinging shot from the first penalty corner beat the outstretched pads of goalkeeper Harjot Singh.

In this age of drag-flicks, it was a big surprise to see a penalty corner goal with a hit at the international level. Expect the Australians to reinvent a long-lost goal-scoring art. It was this surprise element that caught the Indian defence off guard. 

Govers, a rising drag-flicker, showed great composure to turn the ball away from the rusher, and with a great skill — in today’s game, the slap has pretty much replaced the hit — struck the ball through the narrow gap between the goalkeeper and the post man.

India, however, hit back within three minutes as Mandeep Singh did well to earn a penalty corner from a cornered position on the goal-line by pushing the ball on to a defender’s foot.

Rupinder converted the penalty corner with a low drag-flick into the board, but collided with an onrushing defender and had to be helped off the pitch.

Two minutes later, Sunil darted into the circle from the right and was in a one-on-one position with goalkeeper Andrew Charter, who did not face any difficulty in palming away the Indian’s rising shot.

Jamie Dwyer’s brilliance created Australia’s second goal in the 13th minute as he collected a pass inside the circle and flicked the ball across the goalmouth for Whetton to sweep it into an empty goal.

The Indian defence then conceded an easy goal when Rupinder’s risky pass from inside the circle was intercepted by Okkenden.

Okkenden’s first touch took him into the circle and his second released what has to be described as a lightning bolt because the ball was not visible to the naked eye. The speed of the shot was 109kmph.

Five minutes later, the Australians exploited huge gaps in the Indian scoring zone as Orchard capitalised on Dwyer’s flick from the left.

India had a chance to pull one back in the 44th minute when Mandeep got a diagonal ball on the right and had only the goalkeeper to beat. Mandeep shot straight into the custodian.

Ghodes rounded off the scoring in the 53rd minute with a diving deflection on a long through-ball from Orchard. — Agencies 

Women lose to Japan in quarters

Hastings (New Zealand): The Indian women’s hockey team could never recover from three early setbacks and ended up losing 3-1 to Japan in the quarterfinals of the Hawke’s Bay Cup here today. Japan struck in the fifth minute through a penalty corner and added two more goals in the next two minutes to leave India gasping. The Indian team earned their first penalty corner in the 14th minute and Rani converted it to reduce the gap. India came out stronger in the second half and immediately tested the Japanese goalkeeper Asano Sakiyo, who thwarted the attack. Japan, who started the half defensively, were pushed back constantly as the Indians pressed hard to find the goals. A deflection by Poonam missed the target, while captain Deepika also missed a chance in the third quarter. Late in the fourth quarter, India had a flurry of penalty corners as they looked to convert a goal to put their opponents under pressure. Sakiyo, however, stood like a wall to ensure a semis berth for her team. India next play Canada in a classification game on Saturday.