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| October 16, 2001 | Tuesday | Rajab 28, 1422 |
Australia recover to beat India
HOBART (Australia) Oct 15: Australia showed character Monday with a 2-1 defeat of India in field hockey’s junior world cup, regaining composure after a hammering from Holland.
Playing open, attractive and attacking hockey, the Aussies showed the passion and skill that was lacking in their 4-2 loss to the Netherlands on Sunday.
It was India though that showed the early promise, turning over possession in midfield and creating scoring chances for Gagan Ajit Singh, Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh on the counterattack.
Australia missed twice from penalty corners early on.
India shaded Australia in the scoreless first half with 14 circle penetrations to Australia’s 11. Each had four shots on goal.
The second half started with Ajit stretched off clutching his face, felled in the circle by Liam de Young with a blow to the right shin.
De Young drew a yellow card suspension for 10 minutes. From the resulting penalty corner, Jugraj Singh drove home the first goal of the game in the 39th minute.
Australia replied quickly with a short-handed goal from its 6th penalty corner with Craig Victory getting the deflection over Devesh Chauhan in goal in the 44th minute.
Two minutes later, Tejbir Singh was shown a yellow card for interfering with the ball carrier in midfield and the match was played with 10 players aside for seven minutes.
Australia’s second goal brought the crowd to its feet as the home team moved the ball quickly through India’s circle from the centre to the right to Josh Hawes on the left who slapped into the middle of the net to give Australia the game.
“Our start was pretty good and we were in control for the first 15 minutes. Regarding my forward line, I warned them to click but they were not combining and I do not know why they are not combining,” said Indian coach Rajinder Singh said.
“That game was like a final because both teams needed to qualify. We missed chances and they availed themselves of their chances.
“Against Holland — India’s next opponent on Wednesday — we will go all out to win. If there are chances to beat Holland we will take the chances,” Rajinder added.
Australian coach Colin Batch said: “The players have been lacking a little bit of confidence and belief in themselves and they showed character to come back from the big loss yesterday.”
With one point from two matches, India must win against the Netherlands on Wednesday by several goals and hope that Argentina beat Australia to have any chance of a semi-final berth.
In other matches Monday, Ireland beat Canada 2-1, Scotland sneaked past Chile 3-2 and England and Spain fought out a 2-2 draw.
Collated results:
Australia 2 India 1
Ireland 2 Canada 1
Chile 2 Scotland 3
England 2 Spain 2
—AFP
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