Rio De Jenerio :Indian women’s hockey team has shown a disappointing performance suffeing a 1-6thrashing at the hands of a rampaging Australia in their third fixture at the Rio Olympics here on Wednesday.
The Indians who were playing in the Olympics after a gapof 36 years were simply outplayed by the higher-rankedAustralians who exposed the defensive frailties of theiropponents with a comprehensive win in a lop-sided match.
Jodie Kenny struck twice (43rd and 46th minute) whileKathryn Slattery (5th), Georgina Morgan (9th), Jane Claxton(35th), Georgina Parker (36th) scored once each to route theIndians.
For IndiaThokchom Anuradha scored the lone goal withjust 8.3 seconds left on the clock.The Australians who were the 2014 World Cup losingfinalists laid seize of the Indian 25-yard with waves ofattacking runs and forced seven penalty corners from whichthey scored four times.
India on the other hand got just one penalty cornerwhich they failed to convert. They could barely string agoal-bound attack in the whole match as they suffered theirsecond consecutive match.
The Indian forwards could not make any opening and RaniRampal was fielded for very less time. The margin of losswould have been bigger for India had goalkeeper Savita Punianot come up with some fine saves in the match.
With today’s loss India are at the bottom of Pool B withjust one point which they earned from the drawn match againstJapan in their opening match. They had lost to Great Britain0-3 in their previous match.
India have two matches to play in the six-team Pool B –against higher ranked Argentina and United States. Only thetop four finishers will advance to the quarterfinals.
Australia took a 2-0 lead at the end of the first quarterof 15 minutes before the Indians denied them any goal in thesecond quarter. They scored three goals in the third quarterbefore pumping in another one in the final quarter to win theone-sided match.
PTI