Australia too hot for India, hands down four – nil

Ever-green Australia showed no mercy for India, as it heaped four goals by midway through the first half and then contended in being threatening but not fruitful in the last pool match for both at the Kyocera stadium.

Hot humid conditions did not deter precise Australia to pindown India, who almost seemed panicky in the beginning – though managed to do well in the entire second half – and let the game slip away from early minutes of the game.

As Ric Charlesworth, whose team has entered the semis the majestic way with all win record, pointed out they had a chance even in the first minute. Australian attacked from the beginning and the Indian defence which in the early part of the tournament withstood all pressures well in the initial phase, cracked easily.

After Kieran Goers tapped in from closer range in the third minute (1-0), Australia got easy penalty corners, what with Experienced Indian defender Raghunath in particular giving away twice, one for back tackle on the edge of the circle another by keep rooting his legs when a forward tries to manufacture a short corner. Chris Ciriello converted the first one, followed by Jeremy Hayward. The first conversion came in the 16th and the Haywards’ four minutes later (3-0).

Around this spell, each Australian entry threatened a goal, and only in the fitness of things two minutes later Criello fructified third penalty corner (4-0) in the 22nd minute.

A rout was then expected, but the Indians by now, relieved off pressure, pulled up their socks and offered good resistance.

A neck injury to captain Mark Knowells, a mini-motor had to come to the turf to take him off the turf for treatment, seemed to have cast a spell on the marauding side.

Indians managed to split the Australian defence on a few occasions, but the finish was not there, blind hitting at the cage did not help the matters either.

India almost got its first penalty corner around 40th minute, but a referral turned it down. First time the five matches, India did not earn a single penalty corner.

Australia could not score any more in the remainder of almost fifty minutes, and this spell offered good contest though India was mostly on the backfoot.

Its again Indian goalie PR Sreejesh was in his elements to stop a couple of good penalty corner attacks by the much well-oiled Aussie machine.

“We wanted to score every minute, every minute is an opportunity to score. We could have even scored in the first minute. We could not in the major part of the match, and it is how the matches are”, said Ric Charlesworth.