S2H Team
STAT: Today India played its 128th Olympic match. The 7-1 drubbing is the worst ever defeat for India out of 128. The previous worst was 1-6 at the hands of the same rival at Montreal Olympics (1976)
Australia handed India their worst Olympic hockey defeat at the Oi Stadium in Tokyo on Sunday.
After a tide of gold shirts swept Manpreet Singh’s team away, India were left staring at a 7-1 scoreline and a feeling of deflation that now makes the opening-match victory over New Zealand and a year of promise a distant memory.
Australia, nursing five years of hurt after failing to make the semi-finals at Rio and coping with a paucity of match practice in the wake of Covid, left no doubt about their hunger for the gold medal to add to their only one won at Athens 2004.
Their’s was a performance best termed as brutal and they all but blew eight-time gold medallists India away in a second-quarter blitz that yielded three goals in five minutes after leading 1-0 at the end of the first.
There seemed to be a gold shirt at the end of every forward pass, several more around an Indian defender and an extra yard of pace by players donning that colour in what was a celebration of hockey at its very best.
Coming into the match after a 5-3 win over hosts Japan on Saturday, the World No. 1 team scored through Daniel Beale (10th minute) following a penalty corner, Jeremy Hayward (21st), Andrew Ogilvie with a powerful drag-flick (23rd ) and Joshua Beltz (26th) to go 4-0 ahead at the half-time break.
Fourth-ranked India had their chances – Shamsher Singh (twice) and Dilpreet going close – and even outdid Australia on circle entries (24-22) but it’s finishing that counts and the Kookaburras exemplified that in frightening style.
For all that, India began purposefully in the second half and succeeded in reducing the margin when Dilpreet touched home a long pass from Rupinder Pal Singh to provide a hint of a fightback.
But Blake Govers converted a penalty stroke with three-quarter time beckoning, to make it 5-1. He stepped up to score another, this time with a drag-flick before the fourth and final quarter, his 92nd goal in 106 international appearances, the ball going in off Sreejesh.
There was no mercy nor remorse by the Kookaburras in the final quarter and Tim Brand, the livewire on the left flank, scored from a challenging angle past last man Birendra Lakra after Sreejesh had come out of his line for a challenge.
India play Spain next on Tuesday, Argentina on Thursday and hosts Japan on Friday.