India were beaten 2-4 by Australia in their final league fixture of the 36th Champions Trophy on Thursday but a 3-3 draw between Great Britain and Belgium later in the night opened the door for Sreejesh’s squad to qualify for their first-ever Champions Trophy final.
India will again meet Australia in final on Saturday.
India pulled all 11 players into their own circle in the first quarter and succeeded in denying the rival strikers too much space or time to pose much danger.
It was in the second quarter, when the Indian defenders erred in conceding too much space in their territory, that Australia mounted the pressure and succeeded in scoring twice through penalty corner conversions.
They opened the scoring with a conversion by Trent Mitton in the 20th minute and then three minutes later, the Indian goal fell again when Daniel Beale’s shot got deflected off Harmanpreet Singh’s stick over the goalkeeper’s shoulder. Before Sreejesh could try to palm the ball away, Aran Zalewski eased the ball into the net.
After Flynn Ogilvie made it 3-0 to Australia in the 35th minute, the Indian forward line stepped up, forcing two penalty corners in four minutes.
VR Raghunath scored India’s first goal with a low penalty corner shot that went into the boards to the left of the goalkeeper in the 45th minute.
However, the Aussies retaliated within 30 seconds as Tristian White picked up the ball from the goalkeeper’s pads to flick in and give Australia a 4-2 lead at the end of the third quarter.
Talwinder’s reverse shot from the top of the circle opened up the space for Mandeep to deflect the ball in for India’s second goal in the 49th minute.
India’s strikers came alive late in the game, but had a five-minute period of domination when they had a few shots at the goal, but Australian defenders held their ground
(With inputs from IANS)
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