New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) India left it until too late and went down 1-2 to Australia to suffer their first reverse in two Pool A matches of the women’s hockey competition at the Commonwealth Games, here Wednesday.
After beginning on an aggressive note, the Indian attacks tapered off allowing Australia to take control and the Hockeyroos scored once in each half through Shelley Liddelow (13th) and Megan Rivers (60th).
With time ticking by, the Indians, who had drawn 1-1 with Scotland in their first match, woke up, but it was all too little too late as Rani Rampal snatched the ball from a lumbering defender Jessica Arrold to score a minute from close.
‘We started well, but missed a couple of scoring chances early on, and I was not happy at the way we played in the second-half,’ said India team head coach Sandeep Somesh.
His counterpart Frank Murray admitted that his players were rather tired in the last five minutes and committed mistakes in the defense leading to the Indian goal.
‘The last couple of minutes were tense and trying to play 70 minutes was too much under the circumstances, but I was very disappointed with our penalty corner play,’ said Murray, specifically referring to 10 awards that were not put away.
India paid dearly for their unforgiveable errors in the defence where they failed to mark the Aussies and the two goals they let in were more due to lax marking than any ingenuity on part of the Hockeyroos who have six points from two wins.
A right-wing move saw the Aussies sending the ball across the Indian goalmouth and Liddelow, stationed behind the Indian defence that was looking the other way, flicked home.
The second Aussie goal was virtually a replay as Rivers was left free to score off Kate Hollywood’s pass that cut through the Indian defence.
‘It is not just our defence that is of concern to us, but a lot of other areas. Yes, fitness is one of them,’ admitted Somesh when asked whether the Indian players tired.
Incidentally, Australia had beaten India 6-3 in the recent World Cup, but Murray pointed out that the game was won and lost in the last 15 minutes.
Also notching their second win were England in pool B as they turned back an early deficit to post a 4-1 win over Canada who failed to build on a fourth minute penalty stroke conversion by Diana Roemer.
England kept their composure and worked their way back into the match that they eventually controlled as Chloe Rogers (19th), Alex Danson (39th), Charlotte Craddock (48th) and Crista Cullen (68th) scored.
