Champions Trophy 2016 | India’s final hope hangs by a thread as Australia smash four

06/16/2016

India’s hope of making it to their first-ever final in the Champions Trophy hangs in the balance after Australia defeated them 4-2 in the final pool match in London on Thursday. Although India are currently second, the result of the match between Great Britain and Belgium will decide their fate.

After winning a last-minute thriller against South Korea in the last match, India faced World Champions Australia in their last pool match in a bid to reach their first-ever Champions Trophy final. With hosts Great Britain also in the fray to meet Australia in the final, India needed a win to secure their place in the last two. India had seven points from four matches, while Great Britain, who will face Belgium later in the day, had five points from four matches.

Australia start slowly

1-4, 0-5 were the scorelines the last two times India met Australia. A heavy loss for the Word No.7 team was the predicted result, but the first quarter of the match, turned out to be a total disappointment. 1 circle entry, 1 shot, and 1 penalty corner were the contributions from the World Champions, while India also managed just one circle entry of their own. Having secured their place in the final, Australia started the match in a low gear, and moved the ball relatively slowly. India’s defence, which has been an Achilles heel for the team, stood tall against the Australian attack in the first quarter, and kept the match goalless.

The inevitable happened

After an underwhelming first 15 at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, the Kookaburras turned on their style in the second quarter and scored two goals against the Indians. 11 circle entries, 11 shots, and five penalty corners came from the World Champions in the second quarter, while Roelant Oltmans’ India had a big zero in all these statestics. But the one that hurt them the most were the goals. Four penalty corners in five minutes, and a couple of close shaves were the sign of things to come. Eventually, the Kookaburras scored from their fifth penalty corner of the match in the 20th minute with Trent Mitton flicking one past PR Sreejesh.

Once the goal went in, India feared for the worst. Meetings with Australia in the recent past had always ended in huge defeats for India, and it once again headed the same away after Aussie skipper Aran Zalewski doubled the lead in the 23rd minute. Daniel Beale pushed the ball towards the goal after an attack from the right, but a deflection off Harmanpreet Singh’s stick saw the ball rising, and Aran Zalewski tapped it past a diving Sreejesh for the second goal.

Same old, same old

At 2-o, the match was effectively over. The only thing left for India in the next 30 minutes was to escape without suffering an embarrassment. But, stopping Australia from scoring was a big task, and the only way was to score a few. Within five minutes into the third quarter, the scoreline became 0-3. Flynn Ogilvie’s argentine-backhand from the shooting circle beat Sreejesh as the Indian players sunk to their knees. Although Australia dominated, India improved their play bit by bit and found the all-important penalty corners at the fag end of the quarter. VR Raghunath gave India some hope by converting the second penalty corner in the 45th minute, but even before the Indian fans finished their celebrations, Australia scored their fourth. Tristan White pushed one past Sreejesh, in what was a counter-attack from the World Champions, and it ended up being a very familiar scoreline for India.

Defending in final quarter has been a problem for India in the Champions Trophy, but a reverse of that happened against Australia. Trailing 4-1, India pushed forward at every give chance and made 7 circle entries, 5 shots, and 2 penalty corners in the last 15. To add to it, Mandeep Singh scored in the 49th minute by deflecting Talwinder’s powerful shot into the goal. With a goal in the bag, India powered forward in the search for more, but the World Champions effectively saw out the Indians to go into the final unbeaten. But, India’s hope of entering the final will now depend on the result of the match between Great Britain and Belgium later today. For India to enter the final, Belgium will have to either draw or defeat the hosts.

Update: India entered the final after Great Britain drew 3-3 with Belgium.

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