Hockey Test: Blake Govers’ hat-trick helps Australia beat India 7-4 in second match
Harmanpreet Singh scored a brace but there was no way back for India after conceding three goals early in the final quarter. India’s next match will be played on Wednesday.
The Indian men’s hockey team conceded three goals in the final quarter to go down 7-4 against Australia in the second match of the Test series 2022 at the Mate Stadium in Adelaide on Sunday.
Indian captain Harmanpreet Singh (2’, 59’) helped the visitors take an early lead but Australia’s hat-trick hero Blake Govers (11’, 26’, 52’), Jack Welch (16’, 23’), Jacob Anderson (47’) and Jake Whetton (48’) put the game beyond India’s reach. Hardik Singh (24') and Mohammed Raheel (35’) scored the other two goals for India.
Australia’s Jake Harvie was declared the Player of the Match. The match was also Australian captain Eddie Ockenden’s 400th international cap - first men’s hockey player from his country to achieve the feat.
Australia dominated early possession but India drew the first blood after captain Harmanpreet Singh’s precise drag-flick beat the Australian goalkeeper in the second minute of the game.
India’s slender lead soon dwindled as the Kookaburras, after failing to find the back of the net from four consecutive penalty corners, equalised in the fifth attempt as Blake Govers’s searing tomahawk shot on the rebound beat PR Sreejesh.
Australia’s Jack Welch made it 2-1 in the first minute of the second quarter. The forward guided the ball into the net after Jake Harvie’s stickwork inside the D bamboozled the Indian backline.
Australia earned a flurry of penalty corners in the next few minutes. Eventually, India wilted under relentless pressure from Australia as Jack Welch pounced on a rebound to make it 3-1 for the hosts in the 23rd minute.
India pulled one back in the very next minute. Hardik Singh stormed inside the D after making an interception at the 23m line and struck a precise shot from the right to beat the Australian goalkeeper.
Australia persisted to play an attacking game and Blake Govers restored Australia’s two-goal advantage in the 23th minute after an Australian attack from the right.
India matched Australia’s pace in the third quarter as Mohammed Raheel, on his third international cap, netted in the rebound after Harmanpreet Singh’s shot was saved by the goalkeeper in the 35th minute.
With just one goal difference, India pushed for an equaliser early in the final quarter. However, they were found wanting as Australia knit together swift counter-attacking moves to score three goals in the first seven minutes of the final quarter.
Jacob Andersen scored Australia’s fifth goal on the rebound after Blake Govers’s shot was saved by Indian goalkeeper Krishan Bahadur Pathak in the 47th minute.
Jake Whetton made it 6-3 in the 48th minute through a field goal before Blake Govers completed his hat-trick four minutes later from a penalty stroke.
India put pressure on the Australian backline in the final minutes and earned a penalty stroke in the 59th minute after Harmanpreet Singh’s drag-flick hit the Australian body on the goal line.
The Indian captain converted the penalty stroke to make the scoreline more respectable.
India and Australia meet for the third Test on Wednesday. The five-match series, part of India’s FIH World Cup preparations, concludes on December 4.