We salvaged last-gasp draw We drew Australia 3-3 on Wednesday at the Ilawarra Hockey stadium in the industrial town of Wollongong, a good two-hour drive from our hotel Crown Plaza in Sydney. The result is a true reflection of the intense competition that marked our opening match of the repeat Hockey Australia Men’s Challenge Cup. Though we fell in arrears thrice, we bounced back each time to enforce a draw.
For once, our forwardline showed a measure of cohesion and purpose to a level we are actually striving for. Compared to how we fared in the scoring department at Perth — just five goals in four matches – it’s good beginning for us. I regret quality matches such as these; superb contests with goals coming egularly, are not telecast in India. The match was wonderful and words are not enough.
Our third goal from the opportunistic left-half Ignace Tirkey came when hardly a few seconds left for the hooter. Centre-half Bimal Lakra intercepted a good pass in the midfield and passed it to Baljit Dhillon in a swift action. Dhillon entered the circle but found his shot rebounding off the goalkeeper’s pads. Ignace, who followed Dhillon, latched on to it for the equalizer. It’s a fitting reply to the Australians who dashed our hopes at the Perth final last Sunday, posting the winner the same way – 40 seconds before the hooter.
Wednesday’s result was a fitting reward for our ability to withstand early pressures. We were totally on back foot for the first 15 minutes. Goalkeeper Devesh Chauhan and the entire defence rose to the task and denied any leeway to the Aussie forwards. This enabled us to regroup midway through the first-half.
True, local lad Andrew Smith scored both his goals subsequently in this half — in the 19th and 34th minutes — but I knew our goals were waiting to happen. Within a minute, Dhanraj Pillay replied in style. The goal that the skipper scored was a beauty that was set up by Bimal Lakra — a characteristic hard push by Pillay, quickness of which gave no room for the goalkeeper to do anything.
Dhanraj also had his hand in the second goal in the 55th minute. It’s a move from left side involving Pillay, Dhillon and Prabhjot Singh. Dhanraj, dashing into the circle, relayed a return pass to Prabhjot inside the circle for the latter to unleash a firm reverse shot. Moments before this, A Gagan Ajit flier of a grounder shot just missed the net. A close shave for the Aussies.
On WednesdayI rested Mukesh Kumar, Arjun Halappa, Tejbir Singh and Viren Rasquinha. Youngsters Prabodh Tirkey and Tusher Khandekar were given brief chance. They will get more in the coming matches.
We noticed quite a few weaknesses in this match and our endeavour would be to irom them out in the coming matches. My aim is to maintain the same level of performance.
So far in this tour, we haven’t been doing well in the sphere of penalty corners. Today also we failed to avail any of the four penalty corners we got. Whereas the Australians converted one of their four penalty corners. We will focus more on the gray area in the coming matches.
In the other match, Pakistan ended their pathetic showing through a Zeeshan Ali Penalty corner goal, resulting in a 1-0 win over Australia A.