A couple of hours after India defeated Malaysia 4-2 in their second match of the Four Nations Invitational tournament in Melbourne on Thursday, hosts Australia rode a brace from Kieran Govers to beat New Zealand 3-1 to register their second consecutive win of the event.
The win booked a berth for Kookaburras (as the Australian team are known) in the final but it also gave India, who recently won the fourth edition of the Asian Champions Trophy, an opportunity to reignite their campaign and stay alive in the tournament.
While India lost a hard fought battle against Australia 3-2 on Wednesday, a revamped Black Sticks (as the New Zealand men’s national hockey team are known) eked out a 1-1 draw against Malaysia in the tournament opener on the same day.
A loss against Malaysia would have brought India’s campaign to a premature end in the event, but a comprehensive victory on Thursday gave them a new lease of life.
India will play New Zealand in their last league match on Saturday while top-ranked Australia will take on Malaysia, who are the lowest-ranked side in the competition, in their last group encounter.
It will be an uphill task for 14th ranked Malaysia to edge past favourites Australia in their last match making India’s tie against New Zealand a virtual semi-final. The team that wins the game will make it to the final to meet world champions Australia.
The Black Sticks are tricky opponents
New Zealand might be placed two rungs below sixth placed India in the rankings but they have always proved to be a tough opponent whenever the two sides have met.
The last time they played was in the Six Nations Invitational Tournament in Valencia, Spain in June this year. New Zealand edged past India in the match and finished third in the event. India finished fifth only ahead of Ireland in the event.
They also got the better of India in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia as they emerged victorious 2-1 against the team, which eventually finished runners-up after losing to eventual champions Australia in the final.
Though they lost the four-match Test series 2-1 in their own backyard against India in October last year, their seventh place finish in Rio Olympics ahead of India suggests Roelant Oltmans’s team will have their task cut out when they meet the Black Sticks in the virtual semi-final on Saturday.
No Sreejesh for India
India will miss their ace custodian PR Sreejesh in the do-or-die encounter against New Zealand. Sreejesh missed the flight to Down Under due to a knee injury, which he sustained during the penalty shootout against South Korea in the Asian Champions Trophy.
His understudy Akash Chikte, though, had showed glimpses of his brilliance in front of the goal post in that tournament but he will have big shoes to fill when India square off against New Zealand.
Drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh has been in good form since the Asian Champions Trophy, where he finished as the leading goal scorer and won the best player’s trophy. Rupinder’s brace kept India in the game against the mighty Australians in the first match of the ongoing tournament on Wednesday. And it was his strike in the 40th minute against Malaysia that restored India’s lead in their second match.
A lot will ride on Rupinder come Saturday as penalty-corner conversion will play a key role in deciding the winners of the contest.
Nikkin Thimmaiah scored the winner in the final as India defeated Pakistan to lift the Asian Champions Trophy. The forward has given enough evidence of his potential on the field in the last few outings. His brace against Malaysia on Thursday helped India win 4-2 and keep their campaign alive.
Nikkin together with Akashdeep Singh and Affan Yousuf can trouble any defence line and the onus will be on India’s midfield comprising experienced Sardar Singh to feed balls to him at regular intervals to breach opponents’ defence.
Tricky opponents
Former India player and coach Joaquim Carvalho told Scroll that he believed that the Black Sticks were an unpredictable team and said: “Australia will be no different for them and New Zealand will be at home while playing in Melbourne. Given their better knowhow of the place and conditions, it will be difficult for India to put it across them in the last match.”
Carvalho feels Australia are in the rebuilding phase and they are preparing themselves for the 2020 Olympics and other big events. “If Kookaburras are beating us in rebuilding phase then we need to be in a spot of bother. They always prepare for big events by inviting teams and helping their younger lot get match experience by playing against big teams. We should have given rest to seniors like Sardar Singh and Rupinder Singh by including six or seven youngsters in the team. Giving a chance to juniors, who will play World Cup next month in Lucknow, would have done a lot of good for India in future,” Carvalho added.
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