In a thrilling match of hockey, India beat Australia 5-4 in the FIH Pro-League on Sunday. Captain Harmanpreet Singh led the way for India, scoring a hat-trick, all from penalty corners. He found the target in the 13th, 14th and 55th minutes after Australia had taken an early lead in the second minute through a field goal from Joshua Beltz. The Indian team were ahead 2-1 at the end of the first quarter.
India continued their domination in the second quarter with Jugraj Singh converting a penalty stroke in the 17th minute, and Selvam Karthi scoring a field goal in the 25th minute to give India a 4-1 lead at halftime.
Although India failed to score any goals in the third quarter, Ky Willott scored for Australia in the 42nd minute at the Birsa Munda Stadium. In the final period of the match, Australia scored two goals from penalty corners through Ben Staines and Aran Zalewski in the 52nd and 56th minutes respectively. The action-packed fourth quarter produced three goals, including Harmanpreet’s final penalty corner goal in the 55th minute, which completed his hat-trick.
Both teams earned 10 penalty corners each, but India converted three of their ten whilst Australia scored two.
Australia’s visit to India featured a squad that was missing several players who featured in the World Cup here and in Bhubaneswar in January. Eight out of the 20 players in the current squad have made 10 international appearances or less. Australia had finished fourth in the World Cup.
India was without eight players from the World Cup squad, including senior players Akashdeep Singh, Mandeep Singh, and Nilakanta Sharma, after their pre-quarterfinal exit from the showpiece.
India will play against Germany in their second-leg match on Monday, before facing Australia again on Wednesday.