India tour to Australia - October 30-November 10, 2014

[sameerph]

Third match on today live here-

India Australia Hokey test 3

It is 0-0 at half time. No Sardara today. But, we are being quite competitive without him too which is a bit of surprise. Manpreet has taken Saradara's centre half position and doing well. Both teams had a few chances and play has been even so far.

[sameerph]

And we score early in second half thru SV Sunil to lead 1-0.

[sameerph]

And we hold on despite Australia pressing on to win 1-0. Back to back wins against Australia.

[suresh]

Sameer, Thanks for the link. I got to see the end of the match.

[jayakris]

Holy crap. What chyavanapRASam have these guys been having lately?

[ssp]

Unbelievable. What is going on?? We won without Sardar!

I fully expected the Aussies to really come hard at us and inflict a usual 3/4/5 goal beating. That never looked like happening as our players stepped up their game and we were genuinely the better side on chances, PCs and weren't too shabby on possession or circle penetrations.

We are not looking stupid (with wild hits from the right wing or managing 2-3 passes before giving the ball away) and there are no easy routes into our D!! We are tackling in midfield , marking fairly well AND we are keeping our discipline. Don't think we had a card today! How many years have we waited to see this? Hats off to Walsh for showing the way. The Aussies are missing some key players, but I'm still highly impressed with the way we have handled the last 2 games. Trapping was much better in today's game and some of the skills were lovely to see. Sunil was outstanding again and Ramandeep and Nikkin were a threat too.

Rupinder Pal returned but Sardar sat out this one. Manpreet was excellent as centre half. Pleasantly surprised with Gurjinder's play. I expected him to gift away possession and PCs. He did mess up a couple of aerials, but was not the liability I feared.

I still think we are lacking 3/4 top players to be a top 4 team at the world level. Uthappa and Akashdeep cause me a lot of unease. I'm hoping Chandi gets back to his best and somehow we can bolster the midfield.

We really need to keep Walsh till 2016 (or preferably 2018). All this good wok can be undone by a crazy decision by HI or SAI.

[sameerph]

4th Match live -

India vs. Australia

We are leading 1-0 after first quarter. Goal by Akashdeep in a rebound from penalty corner. Penalty corner forced by an excellent run by Sunil. He seems to be in great form in this series and his speed is proving difficult to control for Aussie defenders.

[sameerph]

Still 1-0 at half time. Australia putting a lot of pressure but our defense has stood up well so far. They got 2 penalty corners but Sreejesh has been very good as usual.

[sameerph]

Australia equalize early in second half. We just tried to hold on to that lead which is dangerous thing to do against a team like Australia. Need to get back to attacking way. But, the Aussies are showing better intent now.

[ssp]

Incredible. We score 2 more and win 3-1. Series ends 3-1 as well.
2 of the guys I've been moaning about-Akashdeep and Uthappa- got the goals. Will watch the replay and see what actually happened, but these results are unbelievable.

[sameerph]

Wow, I missed the last quarter of play and we were beginning to struggle in the third quarter and it seemed Australia were on the verge of coming back and equaling the series. Great that we came back strongly in the last quarter.

The Aussies were without some of their best players but still 70% of their world cup winning team was playing here and so it incredible that we won against them.

[srini]

Counter attacks are awesome(most of the goals in this series i can remember came in counter attacks), stick skills and setting up goals has improved by leaps and bounds.What next now? Gold in Champions trophy and in Rio? I don't know what magically changed in this team...the same long passes that used to result in losing the ball to opposition are now tactfully trapped by our own players followed by excellent stick skills in passing the ball to a striker who makes no mistake in converting to a goal.I ask myself what has changed???? It beats me !!

[trojan]

Will this series win impact India's rankings? How many rating points will India get from this tournament ?

[PKBasu]

TERRY WALSH

[Saniapower]

AWESOME !!