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| March 18, 2006 | Saturday | Safar 17, 1427 |
Contrasting victories for England and Australia
MELBOURNE, March 17: Olympic champions Australia and England opened their Commonwealth Games men’s field hockey campaigns with contrasting victories here on Friday.
Australia demolished Scotland 5-1 in a clinical demonstration on why they were the world’s top team and feared by most opponents.
England, hoping to join Australia in the semifinals from group A, survived a missed penalty stroke against New Zealand before recording a tough 4-3 win.
India, meanwhile, dropped two valuable points after being held to a 1-1 draw by inspired Malaysia in group B.
The Indians, who play arch-rivals Pakistan next on Saturday and also have the dangerous South Africa in their group, were hoping to gain three full points against the Malaysians.
Instead, they were lucky to get even one after being dominated through the match by the gutsy Malaysians, who took advantage of the depleted Indian defence.
The only time Scotland matched Australia was when Niall Stott scored in the 13th minute to equalise Matthew Wells’ opener two minutes earlier.
The Kookaburras regrouped quickly against the tiring Scots to pump in four goals on either side of the break.
Dean Butler and Luke Doerner scored before the interval and Travis Brooks and captain Brent Livermore added to the list after resumption.
England were 3-1 ahead against New Zealand midway through the second half when the Kiwis fought back.
Penalty corner expert Hayden Shaw reduced the margin in the 51st minute to set off a New Zealand offensive against the English defence.
Mathew Daly, however, scored his second goal to put England 4-2 ahead before Blair Hopping pulled one back for the Kiwis in the final minute.
Simon Mantell, who scored England’s first goal, wasted a stroke in the second half with a weak push to the right of goalkeeper Paul Woolford.
On Saturday, England play Scotland and New Zealand take on Canada.
India were clearly weakened by the absence of injured captain Dilip Tirkey and reliable defender Harpal Singh who had chicken pox three days before the Games.
Malaysia earned a fortunate break in the 21st minute when Indian goalkeeper Bharat Chetri hit Tengku Ahmad near the backline and saw the umpire award a penalty stroke.
Mohammad Amin cooly pushed home and it needed the penalty corner expertise of Sandeep Singh to help India draw level nine minutes into the second half.
Malaysia were angry they did not get another stroke towards the end when Nor Mohammad was hit on the face by India’s Kanwalpreet Singh.
South Africa, meanwhile, trounced hapless Trinidad and Tobago 6-1 after scoring five goals in the first half.
—Agencies
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