Indian colts go down to Australia in hockey final

SYDNEY: A late golden goal by Jason Donohoe dashed Indian colts’ gold medal hopes as Diwakar Ram and his team-mates went down to Australia 1-2 in the
nail-bitting final of the boy’s hockey event in the Australian Youth Olympics on Sunday.

Although India had a fantastic run in the tournament with two wins and a draw in the league stages, they failed to finish it off on a high note and had to be content with the silver medal.

The Indian eves, meanwhile, rose to the occasion and forced a 2-0 win over USA to win bronze.

In the thrilling boy’s final at the Olympic Hockey Centre, AK Bansal’s boys were clearly the better side, with larger share of ball possession but what was not in their favour was luck as they squandered several scoring chances.

In front of a capacity home crowd, the Aussies started on a positive note and surprised the Indians as early as in the third minute of the match when Kieren Govers found the net from a field goal.

Stung by the early reversal, the Indians made continuous forays into the Aussie citadel to restore parity but with little success.

Captain Diwakar Ram, who has been sensational in the tournament so far with his drag-flicks, was nowhere near his best as he squandered three penalty corners in the first 20 minutes of the match.

India could have been down by two goals by 29th minute had it not been for custodian Mrinal Chaubey who made a brilliant save from a penalty corner to see his side go into the breather trailing by a goal.

The change of ends, however, witnessed a regrouped and rejuvenated Indian forward line-up of Mandip Antil, Jay Karan, Pramod Kumar and Danish Mujtaba showing more purpose in their attack.

The Indians were quite aggressive in the second session and nearly equalised the score in the 43rd minute but Jay Karan’s shot from a crowded penalty box went wide.

The hard work soon bore fruit when Pramod Kumar beautifully intercepted an Antil set up to sent home a crisp shot to level the scores.

From there on, both sides made attempts to break the deadlock but with no result, thereby forcing the match into extra time.

As luck would have it for Indians, the hosts struck gold in the dying stages of the extra time when 20-year-old Canberra forward Donohoe found the net in the 76th minute to dash Indian hopes.

A disappointed Indian coach Bansal said although his side were by far the better team on display, what went against them was luck.

“I didn’t expect to lose. In all, we were the better side. We had more chances, more ball possession than the Australians, but I think today luck didn’t favour us,” he said.

“Credit should also go to the Australian goalkeeper. He foiled all our penalty corner attempts.”

Meanwhile, Rani Rampal and Ritu Rani Tindal scored in the 62nd and 68th minute to see the Indian eves secure the bronze medal in the four-nation tournament.