India cut into the victory sequence of the Australia, inflicting on the World Champion, a 4-3 defeat on Monday at the Sultan Azlan Shah hockey tournament. This was India's third win in a row after the insipid 1-1 draw against China on the opening day.
By S.Thyagarajan
The last victory for India against Australia came in 2003 in the four nation tournament final at Sydney.
The 3-0 half time score that India posted looked somewhat surreal for many but the every goal was earned on account of hard work. It could well have been 5-0 if Sarwanjit Singh had not missed two sitters in front of the goal.
Tushar Khandekar, the man of the match, scored two goals in the first half sharing the other with skipper Rajpal Singh.
But the Aussies came back with vigor on resumption and struck twice in a space of five minutes through Trent Milton and Christopher Cirello.
The Indians had a fight in their hands to defend the lead. Midway through it was enlarged when by Shivendra Singh. With 30 seconds left for the hooter, came Australia's third goal through Mark Paterson.
Earlier, Korea had to counter some anxious moments before dispatching the challenge from China to win 5-3.
In the third match, Malaysia had a comfortable time against Egypt
The results:
Korea 5 (Cho Suk Hoon, Nam Hyun Woo, You Hyo Sik, Yoon Seung, Lee Seung) beat China 3 ( Sun Lung, Yu Young, Na Yubo) HT 3-1.
India 4 ( Tushar Khandekar 2, Rajpal Singh, Shivendra Singh) beat Australia 3 ( Trend Milton, Christopher Cirello, Mark Paterson) HT 3-0.
Malaysia 5 (Aslan Misron 2, Muhammad Hamid Amin, Faisal Saari, Tajuddin) beat Egypt 0 HT 2-0.
Tuesday is a rest day.
