JOHOR BAHRU (MALAYSIA), Oct 18:
Harmanpreet Singh came up with his second hat-trick of the tournament as defending champions India hammered Australia 6-2 to storm into the final of the Sultan of Johor Cup hockey tournament, here today.
With their fourth win from five matches, the junior Indian team has booked a place in the final of the tournament and will take on Great Britain in the title clash tomorrow.
The India team started the match with constant attacking moves and surprised their opponents with their highly aggressive game, which tore-apart the Australian defense.
With repeated attacks, India earned their first penalty corner in the sixth minute, which was converted into a goal by defender Harmanpreet, who had scored the hat-trick against Malaysia in the previous match.
Indian colts scored their second goal just after three minutes through forward Parvinder Singh, who superbly deflected a pass, giving India a 2-0 lead.
The third goal came in the 19th minute when the Indian players outfoxed the Australian defenders and seeing a chance, midfielder Simranjeet Singh sent the ball into the net by diving down. Four minutes later, India were ahead 4-0 after forward Pawan Kumar sneaked into opponents’ defence and directed a brilliant pass into the net.
In the 25th minute, Australia earned a penalty corner, which was converted by Brandan Horner for their first goal of the match. However, after two minutes (27th minute), the Indians earned another penalty corner, which was improperly stopped by Australian defenders.(PTI)
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