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India made a promising begin by taking a first-half lead however its defence fell aside later because the staff misplaced the fourth hockey Test 1-5 to Australia and conceded an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series, right here on Saturday.
The closing match of the series will probably be performed on Sunday. India had received the third match after shedding the primary two contests.
Comeback man Dilpreet Singh (twenty fifth) struck early to give India the lead after a resolute defensive show by Harmanpreet and Co. in a goalless first quarter.
But India’s defence crumbled in direction of the fag finish of second quarter with Jeremy Hayward (twenty ninth) and Jake Whetton (thirtieth) scoring in area of fifty seconds. Tom Wickham (thirty fourth) prolonged the Kookaburras lead, earlier than Hayward accomplished his brace (forty first).
Matt Dawson entered the scoresheet in the 54th minute with a low volley strike that went previous Krishan Pathak.
Pathak, who got here in place of the seasoned Sreejesh, nonetheless made some creditable saves to save India from extra humiliation.
On a sultry afternoon, the hosts fired in all cylinders with Harvey creating some splendid raids from the midfield.
But the world No. 1 staff struggled to breach a resolute Indian defence, which was held firmly by Sreejesh throughout a goalless first quarter.
Pathak got here out with flying colors and made a splendid save in the second quarter to preserve Nathan Ephraums at bay.
It appeared India might stage the series when Dilpreet struck an excellent objective to hand them the lead in opposition to the run of play.
From the highest of placing circle, Dilpreet shortly pierced the defence and made a pointy flip earlier than smashing it into the underside nook.
But India’s lead lasted for about lower than 5 minutes with player-of-the-match Hayward citing the equaliser with a wonderfully positioned drag-flick.
He dragged the ball lengthy earlier than despatching it to the highest proper nook at a lightning quick pace because it went previous Pathak earlier than he might react.
From being 0-1 down, the world primary went 2-1 up in the blink of a watch when Whetton struck off a Jack Welch help, exhibiting his poaching ability.
After getting the ball, he cut up the defence from the highest of the D, surged in earlier than his unbelievable strike. It appeared to be the turning level as Indian defence quickly went on to lose their pace and power with the house facet piling extra stress.
Wickham was second time fortunate after his first try was thwarted from shut vary. The shot regarded to have been saved by Sreejesh however the ball popped up and went into the web to add to India’s distress.
There was no wanting again for Australia as they took a commanding 4-1 lead going into the ultimate quarter with Hayward finishing his brace.
The likes of Harmanpreet, Hardik Singh and Nilakanta Sharma impressed and created alternatives however weren’t ready to discover the goal and match their heavyweight rivals.
India struck a last-gasp objective to beat the hosts 4-3 in the third Test right here on Wednesday to preserve the series alive at 1-2 going into the penultimate Test.
India had narrowly misplaced the opening Test 4-5, whereas they succumbed to Blake Govers’ hattrick to go down 4-7 in their subsequent fixture.
(Only the headline and film of this report might have been reworked by the Business Standard workers; the remainder of the content material is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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