India's losing streak continues

KUALA LUMPUR, AUG. 7. India crashed to its third straight defeat, going down to Australia 2-3 in a league match of the Sultan Azlan Shah hockey tournament here on Tuesday. With just 30 seconds remaining, Australia scored the match-winner with a perfectly executed Troy Elder penalty corner.

Jamie Dwyer (16th), Matthew Smith (37th), Troy Elder (70th), scored for Australia while Deepak Thakur (13th) and Mukesh Kumar (64th) were the scorers for India.

Both the teams started slowly with India trying to hold onto the ball a little longer to kill Australia's pace. It was successful to an extent but Australia was strong on the counter-attack. The Indians led the charge with Deepak Thakur breaking into the Aussie circle but before he could take a shot, the Aussie defence cleared the ball away.

Australia, taking advantage of defensive errors in the Indian circle, earned two penalty corners in the 9th and 12th minutes but failed to convert. It was India which scored first in the 13th minute when Jugraj, off India's first penalty corner, faked a hit and gave the ball to Deepak Thakur who swept it into the goal.

Three minutes later, Australia exploited another Indian defensive error to create a move and scored the equaliser when Jamie Dwyer picked up his own shot off a rebound, off goalkeeper Devesh Chauhan's pads, and tapped in.

Australia straightaway went into the attacking mode in the second half and when it earned its sixth penalty corner in the 37th minute, Matthew Smith did not make a mistake.

With Australia leading 2-1, India went out looking for the equaliser, and increased the pace of the game. But too many chances went abegging as Mukesh Kumar and Daljit Singh faltered at crucial junctures.

In the 56th minute, India had its penalty corner but Jugraj's flick hit Livermore's stick and went out.

India got the equaliser in the 64th minute when the ball went to Daljit on the right flank, who passed it to Mukesh who in turn gave it to an overlapping Deepak Thakur. Thakur's gentle tap beat the advancing Aussie goalkeeper Hickman and rolled into goal.

With the scores locked at 2-2, Australia went into the attack searching for the winner in the last few minutes. India messed up things by holding the ball in their own half instead of clearing it to a forward upfront. In the 68th minute, Australia earned their sixth penalty corner which was saved by Devesh Chauhan.

With 30 seconds remaining, S.S. Gill had the ball on a free hit and instead of sending a parallel ball to a better placed player, he hit it flat towards the midfield where it was picked up by an Aussie player who hit straight back into the Indian circle. Off an infringement, with barely five seconds left, Australia earned its seventh penalty corner and Elder was on target with the match-winner.

Germany thrash South Korea

Germany thrashed South Korea 5-2 to virtually assure itself a berth in the final. Germany has won all its four games so far and at 12 points is five ahead of second placed South Korea, Pakistan and Australia.

With games against Pakistan and England left, Germany needs only two more points to make it to the final on Sunday.

South Korea took the lead in the 26th minute with Yeo Woon-Kon scoring a field goal. But Bjorn Michel scored in the 33rd and 38th minute to put Germany 2-1 ahead. Kyung-Seok reduced the margin in the 42nd minute but Florian Kunz (58th), Sascha Reinelt (64th) and Michel (70th) pumped in three more goals to put the match beyond the Koreans.

- PTI

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