First time in 52 years: Indian hockey team narrates Olympic history with victory against Australia

Captain Harmanpreet Singh scored a brace as India’s men’s hockey team won 3-2 over silver medal foes Australia at the Tokyo Games in their final Group B match in Paris on Friday. Already guaranteed a place in the quarter-finals before Friday’s clash, the Indians played bravely and dominated proceedings for most of the match to surprise the Kookaburras, against whom they last won at the Olympics in the 1972 Munich edition. It looked like India had saved their best for the final group match as they put in a powerful performance, playing attacking hockey from the start and defending well throughout.

Abhishek (12th), captain Harmanpreet (13th, 33rd) scored for India while Tom Craig (25th) and Blake Govers (55) scored for Australia.

With this victory, India will probably finish their group in second place with nine points, behind leaders Belgium (12), who are yet to play a match. Pole position will not change even if Belgium loses the match against Argentina.

The goal difference after this match will determine the final ranking.

The Indians started aggressively and made two circle entries in the first two minutes.

Veteran Indian goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, who is playing his last international tournament, was solid in front of goal, making some vital saves to deny the Kookaburras the goal.

In the 11th minute, Sreejesh made the first save to deny Tom Wickham a goal, which resulted in a penalty. But Jeremy Hayward’s resulting effort missed the mark.

Jarmanpreet Singh then fired a pass to Sukhjeet Singh from the right flank. He only needed to deflect the ball, but he was unable to stop the powerful strike. The strong Australian defense easily thwarted his attempt when he picked up the ball and was ready to attack.

Australia created two successive chances but the Indian defense was solid.

India surprised Australia by taking the lead through Abhishek in the 12th minute. It was Lalit, who received a pass in empty D, he attempted a shot but it was saved by goalkeeper Andrew Charter. Abhishek caught the ball on the rebound, turned and beat rival goalkeeper Andrew Charter.

A minute later, India were awarded a penalty corner when the ball touched Jake Harvie’s foot and Harmanpreet beat the Charter defense with a powerful ground kick.

Tim Brand had the opportunity to reduce the deficit at the start of the second quarter, but shot wide. Australia won their second penalty of the match in the 19th minute, but Govers’ shot was blocked by Sreejesh. Vice-captain Hardik Singh was a thread in midfield, feeding the attackers consistently.

Australia had their third corner short in the 25th minute. It was a poor injection from captain Aran Zalewski, but it turned into a goal when the Australians recovered quickly to pass to the unmarked Craig at the far post, who turned the ball over.

India were also awarded a penalty corner soon but this time Harmanpreet’s effort was stopped by Charter. India led 2-1 at half-time.

India scored a third penalty corner when Manpreet Singh was tackled by an Australian defender. Harmanpreet’s goalmouth shot was blocked by Flynn Ogilvie. India received a referral, which resulted in a penalty.

And Harmanpreet made no mistake in converting the chance.

Australia gained a few more seconds from a corner in the third quarter, but did not take advantage of the chance.

The Indians also secured back-to-back penalties in the final quarter, only to waste them.

In the 53rd minute, Abhishek scored another fine goal after being fed by Mandeep Singh, but the goal was disallowed due to a stick check.

Five minutes from the final whistle, Govers scored his seventh goal from the penalty spot to reduce the margin.

Thereafter, the Indian defense held firm to prevent the Australians from recording a famous victory.

(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)