Birmingham: Australia often brings out the worst in India when it comes to hockey.
It was no different at Birmingham today as the yellow brigade toyed with Manpreet Singh & Co. to win by a staggering 7-0 margin and claim the Commonwealth Games men’s hockey gold medal.
Having managed to avoid facing Australia in the semifinals by topping Pool B, India met their match in the title round on yet another forgettable day.
The Indians didn’t look capable of putting up a fight, let alone win, from the word go. Australia were all over the Indian defence and pumped in 5 goals in the first two quarters. The game was done and dusted at half-time itself.
The men in yellow slowed down a tad and added just two more in the third and fourth quarters.
The margin of defeat would have been far bigger had goalkeeper PR Sreejesh not pulled off half a dozen fine saves.
The fact that India didn’t earn a single penalty corner in 70 minutes tells its own tale.
It was the third time India faced Australia in the CWG finals. Not only did India lose all three gold-medal clashes, they failed to score a single goal in those three matches.
Monday’s match reminded hockey fans of several similarly horrible days in office against Australia in the past – especially the 1-7 drubbing in last year’s Tokyo Olympics and 0-8 drubbing in the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games final.
