Playing an aggressive style of hockey and defending stoutly, India outsmarted tough rivals Australia 3-2 in their concluding Group B men’s fixture in the Olympic Games here at the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium.
It was a truly memorable victory over their nemesis as India had last beaten Australia, silver medalists three years ago in Tokyo, in the Olympics more than half a century ago, in the Munich Games of 1972 on their way to a bronze medal.
India, in fact, led 2-0 within the first 13 minutes of play, a rarity against the 2004 Olympic champions in recent times, and then were up 3-1 going into the fourth quarter.
The heroes of the superb display were Captain Harmanpreet Singh, who scored two of the three goals scored by his team, young sharp shooter Abhishek who opened the scoring in the 12th minute, and goalkeeper P Ravindran Sreejesh who stood like a rock to come up with a number of saves.
The other player to stand out at times was midfielder and playmaker Hardik Singh while the rest played good supporting roles in the splendid victory over Australia who are ranked fourth in the world, three places above India.
Abhishek gave the early lead as he took the rebound off a shot by Lalit Upadhyay following a long through ball and then sounded the board standing a few feet inside the string circle.
The Indians, in fact, rattled the Aussies with their long passes, including aerial ones, and use of the full width of the field by passing the ball from one flank to the other to make inroads.
Harmanpreet increased India’s lead to 2-0 one minute after Abhishek struck home for his second goal of the tournament when he sounded the board off India’s first of five penalty corner awards.
Sreejesh then came to the rescue of the team when he foiled the speedy Tom Wickham.
However the veteran couldn’t prevent Australia from finding the mark quite early in the second half off their third penalty corner award through an indirect try from Craig Thomas who deflected home from the close range a cross from the left in a crowded goal area.
The teams trooped in at half time with India leading 2-1.
Australia started the attack soon after resumption but Sreejesh was alert to cover the angle and India counter attacked leading to their third penalty corner award.
Harmanpreet’s hit struck a rival defender on the foot as it was traveling towards the goal, which India succeeded in proving through a referral.
Harmanpreet himself converted the resultant penalty stroke for his sixth goal of the competition which helped India go 3-1 up in the 32nd minute of the game.
India could have taken a 4-1 lead at the beginning of the last quarter when Abhishek scored but his goal was disallowed after Australia reviewed the award. The goal was disallowed.
It was the turn of Australia then to earn a penalty stroke when Sreejesh sat on the ball following a goalmouth scrimmage. Blake Covens scored from the spot to make it 3-2.