Hockey Test: Indian hockey team beat Australia 4-3, first win after 13 matches

The Indian men's hockey team stunned world number one Australia 4-3 in the third Hockey Test of the five-match series at the Mate Stadium in Adelaide on Wednesday. The fourth match of the series will be played on Saturday and the last match on Sunday.

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In addition, this is the Indian team's first win against Australia after 13 matches in regular time. India last beat Australia 3–2 in regular time on 29 November 2016 in Bendigo, Victoria in the first match of a two-match bilateral Test tour. The two teams have played 13 matches since then, with Australia winning 10 matches in regular time. While two matches were decided by penalty shoot-outs. India won one of these matches. The one encounter between the two teams (Men's Hockey World League Final in Bhubaneswar in 2017) ended in a 1-1 draw and the shootout rule was not in force at that time.

Meanwhile, India, who failed to register a win in both the opening matches of the Hockey Test, managed to keep the series alive with this unexpected success. After this win, India is trailing 1-2 in the series. India had lost 4-5 and 4-7 in the first two Tests. In the meantime, captain Harmanpreet Singh (12th minute), Abhishek (47th minute), Shamsher Singh (57th minute), and Akashdeep Singh (60th minute) scored for the team. On the other hand, Jack Welch (24'), Aran Zalewski (32'), and Nathan Ephraums (58') scored for Australia.

Match Report:

In this match, both the teams started patiently and instead of counter-attacking tried to avoid giving chances to the opposition team. Although Australia created the first chance of the match in the seventh minute, their players could not overcome the alertness of goalkeeper Krishan Bahadur Pathak after tricking the Indian defense. Five minutes later, the Indian captain took the lead from a penalty corner by focusing on 'placement' instead of using power and rounded Australia goalkeeper Johan Durst to the right.

In the second half, India's experienced goalkeeper PR Sreejesh failed two more attempts on goal in the 20th minute. He made a brilliant save on a field shot to deny Australia a penalty corner a minute later. Australia equalized in the 25th minute when Welch scored his third goal of the series.

After the interval, the home team began to press harder to take the lead. And after that, they earned two penalty corners in the space of two minutes. Sreejesh was successful in stopping one while captain Zalewski scored on Howard's shot to put Australia ahead 2-1.

In the last quarter of the Hockey Test match, Abhishek put Harmanpreet's flick past the goalpost to make it 2-2. India then got a penalty corner in the 52nd minute but the team failed to capitalize on it. Rajkumar Pal's shot then went wide of the circle. The Indian team played better in this quarter and the team managed to earn another penalty corner. After Jugraj's attempt failed, Shamsher controlled the ball and scored.

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Although, Australia equalized through Ephraums' goal in the last minute of the match. But 54 seconds before the final hooter, India was awarded a penalty corner which Akashdeep converted from Mandeep Singh's shot to give the team a memorable win.