Azlan Hockey: India fall to Australia onslaught

India’s S.V. Sunil in action against an Australian defender in their Azlan Shah hockey match in Ipoh on Thursday.

India’s defence crumbled under the onslaught of a rampaging Australia as they were handed a 1-5 thrashing by the world champions in their second league fixture of the 25th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament here on Thursday.

Australia, eight-time winners of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, 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 (fifth 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 eighth minute. This was Australia first outing in the round-robin league, while India prevailed 2-1 over Japan in their opener.

India paid for poor clearances and yawning gaps in their circle, which presented Australia two of their five goals. Starting with four circle penetrations in the initial 10 minutes, India failed to capitalise on an early chance when S.V. Sunil went too far ahead and failed to collect a fine diagonal ball from Nikkin Thimmaiah.

Meanwhile, the women’s team could not recover from three early setbacks and ended up losing the Hawke’s Bay Cup quarter-final 1-3 to Japan in Hastings, New Zealand.