AHL 2017: Both India men’s A team and women’s A team lose their second match in Perth

India A men’s hockey team lost to New South Wales 0-1 in a closely fought encounter on Saturday.

With the likes of Tom Craig, Blake Govers, Kieran Govers, Matthew Dawson, Ben Craig to name a few in the NSW squad who have played for the Australian National Team, the encounter against them meant that the Indian Men had to come with their best game plan. It helped that the team’s defence was strong enough to keep NSW forwards from making successful forays into India’s circle.

With goalless first and second quarter, the final 30 minutes of the match promised to be tense. It was NSW who scored first when Blake Govers beat the Indian goalkeeper Krishan Pathak brought into the match in the second quarter. This 37th minute field goal helped NSW take the much-needed 1-0 lead over India.

The final 15 minutes saw Indian forwards make desperate attempts to equalize but couldn’t find any success. There was nerve-biting action with NSW keeping up the pressure and eventually walking home with the winners’ points.

For the women’s A team, the second match in their maiden appearance at the 2017 Women’s AHL turned out to be one-sided as they were overpowered by New South Wales (NSW) with a 7-0 win.

NSW took a strong 3-0 lead in the first quarter of the match putting India on a back foot. It was field goals by Emily Smith (2’), Courtney Schonell (6’) and Jaime Hemmingway (12’) that gave NSW an early edge over the visitors.

Jessica Watterson added another goal to NSW tally in the 18th minute taking their overall lead to a dominating 4-0 in the second quarter. India, however, seemed to recover from the early setback as they put up a controlled defence in the following minutes that restricted NSW forwards from making easy forays into India’s circle. The change in defence-approach paid off as India kept NSW from scoring goals in the remaining minutes of the second and third quarter.

On the other hand, breaking a strong NSW defence was a tough task for Preeti Dubey & Co. Repeated attempts by Indian forwards led by the skipper herself to make successful circle penetrations was mired by a well-structured NSW defence.

The final 15 minutes though saw an urgency in NSW to end the match on a winning note as they increased the intensity of their attack. A major error in the circle saw India give away a penalty stroke in the 46th minute which was successfully converted by Kaitlin Nobbs. Another penalty stroke given away in the 48th minute saw NSW take their total score to 6-0 with Emily Smith converting the goal. Abigail Wilson’s 52nd minute field goal took NSW’s winning score to 7-0.

India A women’s team play South Australia in their next Pool B encounter at 15.00 hrs IST and India A men play Northern Territory in their next Pool B encounter at 10.30 hrs IST on 2 October.