Indian men’s hockey team suffered a humiliating 3-1 defeat from the hands of mighty Australia in its third match of the Sultan Azlan Shah hockey tournament in Malaysia on Tuesday.
Although the Indian drag-flicker Harmanpreet Singh scored the first goal of the match in the 26th minute, the men-in-blue failed to capitalise on the advantage.
Australia started the first quarter aggressively but failed to net a single goal, thanks to Indian goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, who stood tall in front of the goalpost.
Harmanpreet broke the deadlocks just four minutes before the half-time. He struck a rare field goal through a brilliant pass by midfielder Mandeep Singh.
The second-half witnessed table-toppers Kookaburras dominating India to the fullest.
Eddie Ockenden and Tom Craig scored for Australia in the 30th and 34th minutes respectively to give them a lead early in third quarter.
Adding to the woes, Australia extended their lead through a splendid solo strike from Tom Wickham in the 51stminute.
India couldn’t score a single goal thereafter and the final scoreline read 3-1 in favour of Australia.