India suffered defeat at the hands of Australia when it could put on board only two goals against the gifted rival’s three on Wednesday in the only match played at Breda Champions Trophy.

The match started on a brisk note with Lalchan Sharp latching on to a cross to put Australia ahead, only to see five minutes later Varun Kumar levelling the score following a failed penalty corner attempt. The first minutes action set the turf on fire.

Tom Craig bounced on to a rebound off penalty corner at the closing seconds of first quarter (2-1).

Trent Mitton was quick to add another three minutes after half time, which turned out to be the winner in the end. But the interrggnum saw spirited action from both sides, making the game one of the best played in Breda so far.

Trailing 1-3, India put up a brave fight, and slotted a goal out of four penalty corners it got in the spell. Wearing red shirt, Harmanpreet Singh, who came in for replaced inform goalie Sreejesh with just 3.20 minutes left in the clock, sent a stunner of a grounder to reduce the margin to 2-3. But it proved too little and too late to bring even a draw. Australia collected full points.

With three teams having won two of their three matches, Australia topped the pool followed by Netherlands and India.

The contest between the two finalists of the previous edition, was well contested. India however lost the plot in the first half when it players seemed haste, individualistic and lacked precision. It wasted five penalty corners in the first half alone.

However, India displayed its wares in full measure in the fourth quarters. SV Sunil, Sardar Singh, Vivek Prasad had a chance to enter their name in the scoreboard but their first timers were well blocked by equally brilliant Australian goalie.

Both sides missed out on the penalty corners. India wasted as many as five while its one less for their famed rival. India failed to stop the pushed ball in the first two PCs when Australia was not scoreboard. There seemed ground conditions was so dry that the Indian team seeing pouring water from a cane.

Over all, India used one of 9 while Australia lost all its seven penalty corner chances.

At half time India was trailing by a goal in three.

Varun Kumar struck for India following a failed penalty corner attempt. However in the following moments, Sunil sent a cross from deep right backline, even as Mandeep failed to anticipate and deflect, Varun at the other far end pushed hard to beat the goalie (1-1).