India did not fight as expected in men’s hockey final. Having lost 7-0 to Australia, they had to settle for silver.
After the Indian women’s hockey team won the bronze after defeating last time’s gold winners New Zealand, enthusiasm for the men’s team also rose. But the bronze winners of the Tokyo Olympics disappointed in the final of the Commonwealth Games. Harmanpreeta lost 0-7 to Australia. They had to be satisfied with money.
Australia took control of the game from the beginning of the match. In the first minute, Aji’s storm of attacks broke the Indian defense. Although the goal was canceled by the umpire. Undeterred by that, Ajira increased the attack. Basically the whole match was played in India’s half. After Aaron Zaleski’s attack, the Indian team could not counterattack like that in the whole match. Ajira scored consecutively. Australia scored in every quarter of the match. However, Mandeep Singh, the debutant, could not create such a chance to score in the whole match.
8 Govers Blake scored from the penalty corner to give Australia the lead. Nathan Eframs scored the second goal for Ajid in the 14th minute. The Indian team could not use three penalty corners in the first quarter. Harmanpreet Singha started the second quarter in a somewhat aggressive mood. However, it did not help. In 22 minutes, Jacob Anderson gave Australia a 3-0 lead. Tom Wickham scored again for Ajid just 4 minutes later. Australia scored again in the 27th minute. Anderson scored his second goal and the team’s fifth.
After falling behind 0-5 in the first half, the Indian team practically accepted the defeat. The rest of the time was just rule keeping. Even after the victory was confirmed, Australia did not reduce the intensity of the attack. Ephrams made it 6-0 for Australia with his second goal in the 42nd minute. Ajid’s seventh goal in the 46th minute came from the stick of Flynn Ogilvy. Wickham scored another goal in the 54th minute. However, the umpires canceled the goal after the appeal of the Indian team’s referral.
The Indian hockey team could not compete with Australia in any category on this day. The Indian team has not seen such a dismal performance since the Tokyo Olympics. But the Indian hockey team could not even fight in the final of the Commonwealth Games. As a result, Harmanpreet had to be satisfied with the silver despite raising expectations. It may be noted that India’s last gold medal hope from the Birmingham Games was in men’s hockey.