Champions Trophy: India enter final despite 4-2 defeat

India finished with two wins, two losses and a draw from its five games while Australia topped the group stage with four wins and a draw.

Published : Jun 16, 2016 22:40 IST , London

Trent Mitton of Australia and Harmanpreet Singh of India in action during the FIH Men's Hockey Champions Trophy in London.
Trent Mitton of Australia and Harmanpreet Singh of India in action during the FIH Men's Hockey Champions Trophy in London.
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Trent Mitton of Australia and Harmanpreet Singh of India in action during the FIH Men's Hockey Champions Trophy in London.

India qualified for the FIH Champions Trophy final despite a 2-4 defeat to world champion Australia in its last league outing of the 36th Champions Trophy Hockey here today.

Belgium's 3-3 draw with Great Britain in the late game meant that India finished second in the group stage behind the Aussies.

India's two goals came from penalty corner shooter VR Raghunath and striker Mandeep Singh, but it was too late to cause any threat to Australia, which had gained a stranglehold through strikes from Trent Mitton, Aran Zalewski, Flynn Ogilvie and Tristan White.

India pulled all 11 players into its own circle in the first quarter and succeeded in denying the rival strikers too much space or time to pose much danger.

It was in the second quarter, when the Indian defenders erred in conceding too much space in their territory that Australia mounted the pressure and succeeded in scoring twice through penalty corner conversions.

India did not have a single shot at the Australian goal in the first half and started its fightback too late to be able to change the result.

At the start, the Indians were content on defending their own territory and did not move up until the seventh minute, when overlapping striker Surender Kumar sent a cross into the right from the right flank. The Australian defenders kept their composure and the ball was cleared by the goalkeeper without an Indian striker coming into the frame.

Australia's first penalty corner came in the 10th minute when Jeremy Hayward's shot was blocked by goalkeeper PR Sreejesh.

Indian strikers Talwinder Singh lost his way at the top of the rival circle when he was dispossessed by the challenge from three defenders in the 12th minute. The Indian strikers thereafter did not mount a decent raid in until they got the first penalty corner in the 42nd minute, while Australia strengthened its stranglehold on the match.

Denied a goal in the first quarter, Australia exerted more pressure as it forced five penalty corners in the second quarter and scored twice.

Matt Dawson's penalty corner in the 17th minute rebounded off the right post and goalkeeper Sreejesh made two fine saves off the next penalty corners before Australia opened the scoring with a conversion by Trent Mitton in the 20th minute.

Three minutes later the Indian goal fell again when Daniel Beale's shot got deflected off Harmanpreet Singh's stick over the goalkeeper's shoulder. Before Sreejesh could try to palm the ball away, Aran Zalewski eased the ball into the net.

Australia was continuing to make life difficult for Indian defenders when Flynn Ogilvie made it 3-0 in the 35th minute. Picking the cross from right in the circle, he had plenty of time and space to get into position for a goal-bearing shot and defeated the custodian with a shot that brushed his pads before landing in the far corner of the cage.

The Indians pulled one goal back in a brief period during which they forced their two penalty corners in four minutes. Harmanpreet Singh's penalty corner flick in the 42nd minute lacked the force to get past the Australian defence, but VR Raghunath scored India's first goal with a low penalty corner shot that went into the boards to the left of the goalkeeper in the 45th minute.

But India conceded again within 30 seconds as Tristan White picked up the ball from the goalkeeper's pads to flick in and give Australia a 4-2 lead at the end of the third quarter.

Talwinder's reverse shot from the top of the circle opened up the space for Mandeep to deflect the ball in for India's second goal.

India's strikers came alive late in the game, but had a five-minute period of domination when they had a few shots at the goal, but Australian defenders held their ground.

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