ROURKELA: The last time an Indian match went into the shoot-outs, it was when they faced off against New Zealand at the World Cup crossover and lost.
There was no repeat of that night on Wednesday as PR Sreejesh stood strong and helped India go past Australia 4-3 via shootouts and earn the bonus point in the FIH Pro League mini tournament after the game ended 2-2 at the end of regulation time on Wednesday.
It began well for India as Harmanpreet Singh scored after Jake Whetton missed. But consecutive misses by Hardik Singh and Vivek Sagar Prasad helped Australia take a 2-1 lead after three shots each. Jack Welch then made it 4-1 as Sukhjeet Singh also converted to keep India in the fight.
But with the crowd going wild, Nathan Ephraums missed and Dilpreet Singh converted to take the match into sudden death.
Then both Harmanpreet and Sreejesh stepped up and made sure there was no heartache, unlike last time. First, the captain scored and then Sreejesh, the man of the moment, saved as the capacity crowd at Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium erupted with joy.
The result helped India stay unbeaten in the mini tournament after they had won the last three matches. It also helped the Indian team stay atop the league table with 19 points from 8 matches while Australia remained at sixth with eight from eight.
As for the regulation time, Prasad, playing his 100th game, and Sukhjeet scored for India while Ephraums scored both goals for the visitors. Although it wasn’t an easy outing for the hosts, they defended well and kept the Australians at bay for long periods. The result of the mini tournament will surely boost their morale and help them prepare well for the rest of the year.
Earlier, India got off to a dream start as they earned their first PC in the second minute itself.
As expected, Harmanpreet took the shot, but it was blocked. However, Prasad collected the rebound, dodged a defender and with a reverse hit put the ball into the bottom-right corner from almost the top of the D. It was just the start that India would have wanted and they could have increased it a few minutes later when they won four more PCs but couldn’t convert either of them.
Australia, meanwhile, found their footing in the game in the second quarter as India did well to absorb the pressure and stay in the lead.
Despite their inability to break down the Indian defence, Australia didn’t lose heart and maintained the intensity in the third quarter. And were rewarded for their efforts when they won a penalty stroke seven minutes into the restart after Pawan took down Ephraums inside the D. Ephraums came up to take it and converted with ease.
India, however, got back into the lead two minutes in the fourth quarter after a moment of brilliance from Sukhjeet. Collecting the ball from a rebound, he made a double spin on the left inside the D to get away from a couple of defenders and played it toward the front of the goal where Selvam Karthi was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Eddie Ockenden.
Karthi went for the ball, but it was Ockenden who got a touch as the ball went into the goal through the legs of the goalkeeper.
India weren’t able to hold onto the lead though as Ephraums scored again in the 52nd minute from the PC and the match went into the shootouts. However, this time India came out on top as Sreejesh was the hero once again.
