India manage to hold Aus 1-1

A resolute India rallied to hold world and Olympic champion Australia to a 1-1 draw, riding on Adrian D’Souza’s brilliant goalkeeping in their Sultan Azlan Shah Cup match here today.

India’s defence showed frayed nerves throughout the encounter, but the defending champions managed to emerge with a 1-1 draw. Jacob Whetton (14th minute) and Rupinder Pal Singh (22nd minute) were the ones who hit on target in the exciting match.

The Indian defence allowed Australia to dominate the game, conceding two soft penalty corners and repeatedly gave away the ball to the Australian strikers, but D’Souza played an outstanding game to keep the rivals at bay. The 1-1 score-line will give satisfaction to the Indians, coming in the first encounter with Australia after the 8-0 drubbing in the final of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi seven months ago.

Like India, the Australian lineup was also without half a dozen players from the senior squad, but the Aussies set the pace in the game and maintained complete domination in the initial 15 minutes of play, when India just managed to make one foray into the rival territory.

India’s fumbling defence seemed to create pressure on themselves, but they still hung on grimly to keep the score level, and were aided by the wayward shooting of the Australian strikers. A weak clearance by Rupinder Pal Singh saw the Indian goal come under pressure in the third minute, but he managed to recover ground to deflect out Glenn Turner’s feeble shot.

Three minutes later, D’Souza padded a Jason Wilson shot past the jittery defence. Australia forced their first penalty corner in the ninth minute, but fumbled in the set-piece attempt. — PTI