India suffered their second straight defeat at the hands of the Australian Development squad when they were beaten 5-2 at the State Hockey Centre at Brisbane today.

The Aussies who won 5-3 last night in their previous meeting, scored through Hotchkis Daniel (14th), Geoffrey Cock (18th), Liam de Young (21st), Jason Wilson (53rd) and Mark Patterson (61st min).

Shivendra Singh (10th) and Sandeep Singh (46th min) found the mark for India who trailed 1-3 at half time.

India shot into the lead in the 10th min when Shivendra deflected home from Sandeep Singh’s slapshot past goalkeeper George Bazeley.

Australia equalised four minutes later in identical fashion as Daniel put it past Baljit Singh after being set up by medio Jonathan Charlesworth.

Cock broke the hosts into the lead after a goalmouth skirmish soon after and the Aussies further consolidated their position when captain Liam de Young overlapped with Mark Patterson to put them up 3-1.

After the break Sandeep Singh reduced the margin from a penalty corner flicking low to the right of Bazeley.

However Australia came back strongly as they scored twice with Wilson and Patterson shooting past substitute custodian Adrian D’Souza.

Coach Incharge Harendra Singh said that he was disappointed with the team’s overall performance and further stated that the defence needed to be bolstered for the future.

India will fly to New Zealand tomorrow where they will play a four Test series against the Kiwis at Wellington and Auckland. The first Test shall be played on Saturday.

IHF Ad Hoc Committee Media Release