Last-gasp draw for women

Tokyo, August 18 

The Indian women’s hockey team came back twice from behind to hold world No. 2 Australia 2-2 in a hard-fought round-robin league match of the Olympics test event.

Vandana Katariya (36th minute) and Gurjit Kaur (59th) scored for India to cancel out strikes from Kaitlin Nobbs (14th) and Grace Stewart (43rd) in their second match of the tournament. India had beaten hosts Japan 2-1 in their first match.

World No. 10 India began the match aggressively but Australia were awarded a penalty stroke in the 14th minute after an Indian defender blocked a shot at goal. Kaitlin made no mistake in converting from the spot to give Australia a 1-0 advantage. Australia completely dominated the second quarter but India’s defence held firm and goalkeeper Savita made a couple of great saves to deny Australia, who were 1-0 up at the half-time break.

Equaliser

India struck after the break as Vandana Katariya finished a superb move to equalise in the 36th minute. In the 43rd minute, Australia found their second goal through some exquisite teamwork, which resulted in Grace giving Australia a 2-1 lead.

With time running out, India won a crucial penalty corner in the 59th minute and dragflicker Gurjit Kaur struck a sweet blow into the goal to earn India a well-deserved draw. The Indian women will face China on Tuesday in their third and last round-robin match. 

Kiwis win

The Indian men’s hockey team squandered an early lead to go down fighting 1-2 to New Zealand in their second match of the Olympic test event. Skipper Harmanpreet Singh put India ahead in the second minute by converting a penalty corner but New Zealand struck back in the last quarter through two well-crafted field goals — by Jacob Smith (47th) and Sam Lane (60th) — to have the last laugh.

Early lead

World No. 5 India won their first penalty corner in the second minute, which was converted by dragflicker Harmanpreet to give his team a 1-0 lead. New Zealand, the world No. 8, defended well and managed to keep the lead down to one goal. In the 47th minute, New Zealand produced an effective attack which saw Jacob Smith score to equalise at 1-1. With barely one minute remaining, New Zealand’s scored the winner through Sam Lane, who took advantage of India being short of players in defence. India will face hosts Japan on Tuesday. — PTI