Hockey: India colts beat Australia,eves lose to Britain

Mandeep Antil and skipper Diwakar Ram scored a goal each to hand the India U-21 men's hockey team a 2-1 victory over hosts Australia.

Mandeep Antil and skipper Diwakar Ram scored a goal each to hand the India U-21 men’s hockey team a 2-1 victory over hosts Australia in the four-nation Australian Youth Olympics Festival (AYOF) at the Olympic Park Hockey Centre,in Sydney on Wednesday.

However,it was a contrasting result for the Indian girls team as it went down 1-3 to Great Britain. The Indian colts,under coach A K Bansal started from where they had left off in Argentina and put the hosts under pressure from the word go.

Expectedly,the strong start soon materialised into a lead,with Antil finding the net in the 11th minute through a beautifully worked out field goal.

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Centre-half Vivek and Amir Khan worked in tandem on the right side of the midfield to set up the goal for Antil who did no mistake in sounding the board.

The Indian forwards and midfielders’ seamless movement soon resulted in a 2-0 lead when captain Ram converted a penalty corner in the 25th minute,driving to the right of the Australian goalkeeper.

Australia had a series of chances in the dying minutes of the first half earning three short corners in the space of six minutes,but India custodian Mrinal Chaubey stood like a rock.

Australia,starting the second half with a two-goal deficit,tried hard to break the Indian defence but were caught on the wrong foot by the pace of the Indian forwards and midfielders.

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The hosts did manage to pull one back in the 66th minute when Tristan White scored off a short corner to make it 2-1. Australia had a wonderful opportunity to level the scores in the final minutes of the match but the Indian defence was up to their task.

In the other matches of the day,Malaysia held Great Britain 4-4 in the men’s section while Australia thrashed the United States 4-0 in the women’s category.

The Indian colts will like to carry forward their winning momentum when they face Great Britain tomorrow,while the girls will have an uphill task at hand to stay afloat in the tournament as they take on mighty Australians in their second match.