Azlan Shah Cup: Australia beat India by 4-2 in India’s second loss of the tournament

India played a tough opponent in the opening match of the Azlan Shah Cup as they went up against Olympic champions Argentina. The Indians fought hard and missed out on a win as they succumbed to a 3-2 defeat in the opener. They were to play Asian rivals Australia in their second match and looked to give it their all.

But as things turned out, the young Indian players were not up the mark for the occasion. The Australians outplayed their Indian counterparts by a 4-2 scoreline, to hand the Men in Blue their second defeat of the tournament.

The game was largely even for the most part but things took a swift turn in third-quarter as the Australians put three goals India in quick succesion. Tough questions will be asked for at least two of those goals came from incidents that could be termed ‘schoolboy errors’.

The tone of the game, though, was set as early as the second minute of the game with young goalkeeper Krishan Pathak making a superb diving save off Daniel Beale.

Mark Knowles, Aran Zalewski, Daniel Beale and Blake Govers scored for Australia.

Indian player Ramandeep Singh scored two quick goals in the fourth quarter to avoid a whitewash, but they were merely consolation goals. There were no further slip-ups from Australia’s end as they completed their third win on the bounce.

The young Indian side showed signs of promise, but they still lacked the ability to cash in on penalty-corners, which was their downfall. The Indians now need to beat Ireland and Malaysia in their next two outings and hope that Argentina lose their matches in order for them to make it through to the next round.

Australia just need one more victory, with 2 matches coming up against Argentina and Ireland, while India are languishing in 5th position out of 6 teams.