India leave it a bit too late as Australians win league encounter 4-2; India can still make final if Britain and Belgium play out draw
Australia celebrate a goal as India's Chandanda Thimmaiah looks dejected in the Champions Trophy yesterday. Pic/Getty Images
London: India may have left their attacking mode far too late as Australia emerged 4-2 winners in their final group encounter of the Hero Champions Trophy yesterday. After a scoreless first 20 minutes, Australia scored in the 21st and 23rd minutes to go 2-0 into the second half.
Australia celebrate a goal as India's Chandanda Thimmaiah looks dejected in the Champions Trophy yesterday. Pic/Getty Images
Australia scored through Trent Mitton (21st), Aran Zalewski (23rd), Flynn Ogilvie (33rd) and Tristan White (45th), while VR Raghunath (45th) and Mandeep Singh (47th) scored for India.
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India needed to go all out in the first 10-15 minutes if they wanted to win and seal their berth into the final. Instead they opted to wait and paid the penalty as Australia overran them in the first three quarters and then simply sat on their lead to win.
In the third quarter, both teams exchanged a goal each in the span of less than 20 seconds as Australian went 3-1 up. In the final quarter, India had the lion's share of the exchanges, created greater chances, had a fair number of penalty corners, too, but managed just one more goal. That gave the scoreline a lot of respectability at 4-2, but showed that Australia were way superior.
As things stood yesterday, India needed Britain and Belgium, who were to play later last night, to draw, for that would put India ahead of both on points. If either Britain or Belgium win, India could be edged out of the finals. India has seven points with two wins and a draw and a goal difference of -1. Britain could walk into the final with a win, but a Belgium win would mean goal difference comes into play and in case it the same, Belgium moves ahead as they beat India in their individual clash.
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