Captain Harmanpreet Singh acquired his mojo again as he scored a hat-trick, all from penalty corners, to steer India to a uncommon 5-4 win over Australia in a nine-goal thriller within the FIH Professional-League hockey in Rourkela on Sunday. Harmanpreet discovered the goal within the thirteenth, 14th and fifty fifth minutes after Australia had taken an early lead as shortly as within the second minute via a area objective from Joshua Beltz, as the house aspect had been 2-1 forward on the finish of the primary quarter. The Indian domination continued with Jugraj Singh changing a penalty stroke within the seventeenth minute earlier than Selvam Karthi scored a area objective within the twenty fifth minute to offer his aspect a 4-1 lead at half time.
India, who had surprised world champions Germany 3-2 on Friday, didn’t rating any objective within the third quarter however Australia did via Ky Willott within the forty second minute on the Birsa Munda Stadium.
The guests scored two targets within the fourth interval, each from penalty corners, via Ben Staines and Aran Zalewski within the 52nd and 56 minutes respectively.
The action-packed fourth quarter produced three targets, together with that of Harmanpreet from a PC within the fifty fifth minute, which was his hat-trick objective.
Each side earned 10 PCs every from which India transformed three whereas Australia scored twice.
Australia had come right here with a number of gamers who weren’t a part of their squad that featured within the World Cup right here and in Bhubaneswar in January. Eight out of the 20 gamers within the present squad have made 10 worldwide appearances or much less.
Australia had completed fourth within the World Cup.
India had been additionally with out eight gamers from the World Cup squad, together with senior gamers Akashdeep Singh, Mandeep Singh and Nilakanta Sharma, after their pre-quarterfinal exit from the showpiece.
Australia silenced the house crowd early within the match once they scored within the second minute. It was Joshua Beltz who waltzed into the placing circle, beating the Indian defence for a tremendous objective.
The early setback, nonetheless, didn’t have an effect on the house crew’s rhythm as they remained persistent of their try to create house within the placing circle.
Dilpreet Singh, in a single such try to drive into the circle, earned a PC for India. Harmanpreet, who had narrowly missed the primary likelihood to attain off a PC, confirmed nice character in completely executing this chance to degree the rating.
A minute later, Abhishek arrange one other PC for India and Harmanpreet scored similarly, holding the ball low to search out the nook of the submit.
Solely 16 seconds into the second quarter, Australia staged a comeback with a PC however younger goalkeeper Pawan was on the mark to pad away Anand Gupte’s effort.
Three minutes into the second quarter, the immensely gifted S Karthi put India forward when he received India a penalty stroke. Taking the strike, Jugraj Singh made no mistake in placing it previous Australian goalie Benjamin Rennie.
In whole management of the proceedings, India continued to surge forward, clinically constructing on their assault.
It was Karthi once more within the ahead line who grabbed the limelight with a superb objective within the twenty sixth minute, placing India 4-1 forward. He picked up a tremendous help from Sukhjeet Singh within the midfield, managed the ball nicely sufficient to penetrate the highest of the circle and take a profitable shot on objective.
The third quarter noticed Australia decided to slender the lead. They earned PCs however ultimately scored a area objective by Ky Willott.
Australia received one other PC within the 53rd minute and it was put away quite splendidly by Ben Staines.
With little lower than 5 minutes left within the match, India received a PC, because of the skilful work of Hardik Singh and Vishnukant. Exhibiting simply why he’s a category aside, Harmanpreet was sensible together with his drag-flick as gave India a 5-3 lead.
However Australia bounced again with their fourth objective within the 57th minute. It was a PC rebound picked up by Aran Zalewski.
This was India’s fourth outright win in six matches within the 2022-23 season of the FIH Hockey Professional League.
India face Germany of their second-leg match on Monday earlier than taking up Australia once more on Wednesday.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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