Agency report

Kuala Lumpur, Jun 19: Australia’s Brent Livermore described the Indian side under coach Vasudevan Baskaran as a “team that doesn’t normally change its playing structure” after a 4-1 win in the Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament opener at Bukit Jalil stadium on Sunday.

Easy goals

India allowed Australia to get away with two soft goals early in the proceedings and then missed chances to lose to the Olympic champions.

But Livermore later added, “India is under a new coach and we need to watch out as they could be a different team when the World Cup comes around in September.”

A visibly disappointed Baskaran described the twin-strikes as “soft” and said, “The early goals combined with the sitters that India missed changed the complexion of the game for us.”

There is truth in what Baskaran said because India had a wonderful opportunity in the fifth minute to score but after a series of passes between Vinay, Tushar Khandekar and Rajpal, it was the Chandigarh lad who failed to finish. An early goal for India could have pushed the Aussies to errors.

Aussie domination

Meanwhile, Australia’s Barry Dancer said, “We controlled the game and the only time when India had an upper hand was when Brent Livermore was shown the yellow card.”

India managed to reduce the deficit with a Tejbir strike but  the Aussie juggernaut kept on rolling.

Matt Naylor got two and in the end Luke Doerner completed the tally with a penalty corner flick.

Bad news

There was more bad news for India when Rajpal twisted his ankle during the match. He may be forced to miss out the rest of the tournament. In the end, the road to the September World Cup doesn’t seem all that smooth.