Young striker Nikkin Thimmaiah scored a hat-trick as India produced their best performance of the tournament to stun world champions and title holders Australia 4-2 on Saturday and secure a place in the third and fourth place play-off at the Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament here on Saturday.
Already out of title race, India played without pressure and at last came up with a complete performance that had Australia on the backfoot for most part of the match. The win gave also gave India’s new chief coach Paul van Ass his best moment of a short career with the Indian team.
India scored a goal each in all the four quarters through VR Raghunath (1st minute), Nikkin (23rd, 32nd, 60th), while Australia’s goals came from the sticks of Daniel Beale (14th) and Matt Gohdes (53rd). By virtue of this win, India finished their league engagements with seven points from five games and will now face Korea in the play-off on Sunday after the East Asians drew 3-3 with New Zealand on Saturday.
The Kookaburras struggled for ball possession throughout the match and their defence crumbled when put under pressure by the Indian forwards. Barring the two soft goals which they conceded, there was no blemish in India’s performance on Saturday.
After four games, the Indians at last showed class and made a promising start to the match against a side which is way above in current world hockey. India were by far the better side on display in the entire 60 minutes as they dominated the proceedings against all expectations.
The Indians were off to a great start as they went on the offensive from the word go and in the process earned two penalty corners in succession with the very first move of the match and Raghunath converted the second set piece with a booming flick to give the side an early lead.
Next minute, Ramandeep Singh’s effort was saved by Australian goalkeeper Clemons and Akashdeep Singh shot wide from the resultant rebound. The Indian defence, however, broke down just a minute from the end of the first quarter as Australia equalised through Beale, who got plenty of space inside the Indian circle and made no mistake in pushing in Trent Mitton’s pass.
Four minutes into the second quarter, Satbir Singh hit one straight to the Australian goalie Clemons. Minutes later, India restored their lead when Nikkin scored his first of the day after being set up by Satbir and SK Uthappa’s fine play.
Just two minutes after the change of ends, India had another opportunity but when Raghunath’s scoop from the deep found Akashdeep Singh but the striker’s first time shot was blocked by Clemons. From the very next move, India made the scoreline 3-1 in their favour through second strike from Nikkin, who neatly deflected in a Manpreet Singh pass from the right.
Australia reduced the margin in the seven minutes from the hooter when Gohdes caught the Indian defence off guard by deflecting in a Budgeon’s splitting diagonal ball from outside the circle.