FIH Pro League: India Beat Australia 5-4 In Nine Goal Thriller
After beating world champions Germany 3-2 on Friday, India also beat Australia 5-4. Harmanpreet scored a hat-trick while Jugraj & Selvam scored 1 goal each.
Harmanpreet Singh regained his form by scoring a hat-trick from penalty corners on Sunday to lead India to a 5-4 victory against Australia in a nine-goal FIH Pro-League thriller.
Australia took a 2-0 lead at the end of the 1st quarter thanks to a field goal from Joshua Beltz in the second minute. Harmanpreet scored goals in the 13th, 14th, and 55th minutes to give the home team a 2-1 advantage.
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Jugraj Singh’s successful penalty kick in the 17th minute and Selvam Karthi’s field goal in the 25th to give his team a 4-1 lead at the interval sustained India’s dominance.
At the Birsa Munda Stadium, Australia scored a goal through Ky Willott in the 42nd minute of the third quarter while India failed to score.
Ben Staines and Aran Zalewski each scored twice for the visitors in the fourth quarter, both coming off penalty corners, at the 52nd and 56th minute marks.
Three goals were scored in the frenzied fourth quarter, including Harmanpreet’s hat-trick goal from a PC in the 55th.
Each team received ten penalty corners, out of which Australia scored twice and India converted three.
Some Australian players who weren’t on the team that competed in the World Cup in Bhubaneswar in January came to this country.
The current roster has 20 players, however only eight of them have more than 10 international appearances. Australia’s World Cup performance was fourth.
After being eliminated from the World Cup before the quarterfinals, India was also without eight members of the World Cup roster, including veteran players Akashdeep Singh, Mandeep Singh, and Nilakanta Sharma.
India’s second-leg encounter is against Germany, and they play Australia again on Wednesday.
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