Hockey News: India offer a tough fight in 5-4 loss to Australia
The Australian men's hockey squad secured a 5-4 victory over India in the India Tour of Australia final match at the Mate Stadium in Adelaide, Australia, on December 4 to win the series 4-1.
Australia beat IndiaThe five-match India Tour of Australia was a crucial series for India in their preparation for the 2023 FIH Hockey Men's World Cup set to take place in Bhubaneswar-Rourkela, Odisha, from January 13.
Within regulation time, Tom Wickham in the fifth and the 17th minutes, Aran Zalewski in the 30th minute, Jacob Andersen in the 40th minute, and Jake Whetton in the 54th minute were the goalscorers for Australia.
In contrast, Harmanpreet Singh in the 24th and 60th minutes, Amit Rohidas in the 34th minute, and Sukhjeet Singh in the 55th minute were the goal scorers for India.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Hockey?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Hockey</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/INDvsAUS?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#INDvsAUS</a> | "We fought hard and it was a good character-building game for us ahead of the World Cup in January,” coach Reid said.<br><br>And so ended a long wait for India and the series came alive. <a href="https://twitter.com/vinayakkm?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@vinayakkm</a> writes<br><br>Read: <a href="https://t.co/UU4qXA9dJG">https://t.co/UU4qXA9dJG</a><a href="https://twitter.com/thefield_in?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@thefield_in</a> <a href="https://t.co/PtJErsKw6B">pic.twitter.com/PtJErsKw6B</a></p>— Scroll.in (@scroll_in) <a href="https://twitter.com/scroll_in/status/1598362791852838926?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 1, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Australia began the match aggressively and took the lead in the fifth minute as Wickham slotted the ball into the net after receiving the ball from co-captain Aran Zalewski.
India tried to fight back and won three consecutive penalty corners but failed to convert any of them.
Australia continued their attacking momentum in the second quarter as Wickham slotted the ball into the net to make it 2-0 after Sharp took control of the ball from Jugraj Singh in the midfield.
India earned their fourth penalty corner in the 24th minute, and Harmanpreet Singh slotted the ball into the net past the Australian goalkeeper Andrew Charter to narrow the deficit to 2-1.
In the final minutes of the first half, player of the match Zalewski scored to make it 3-1 from a rebound on Jacob Anderson's shot.
The visitors tried to bounce back in the second half and gained some momentum as Amit Rohidas fired the ball into the Australian goal after receiving a fantastic long pass from Hardik Singh.
Daniel Beale ran into the Indian circle in the 40th minute and passed the ball to Andersen, who quickly sent it into the net to further widen the lead for Australia to 4-2.
Whetton made it 5-2 for India with just six minutes left into the match. India launched a counter-offensive with all they had, scoring twice in the game's final five minutes in an excellent display of fighting spirit.
However, the Indian squad failed to find the equalizer as the Australian side secured a 5-4 victory.
India's coach Graham Reid was not disappointed with the performance of India during the series. He said: "As a coach, you have to be critical of things. But you also have to appreciate the good we have done. We have scored a lot of goals against Australia and that's a great thing for us."