India go down 1-3 to australia in hockey Champions Trophy final

India for a second consecutive time finished as runner-up going down 1-3 via penalty-shootouts to defending champions Australia in the final of hockey Champions Trophy in Breda, Netherlands on Sunday.

Australia goalkeeper Tyler Lovell saved three penalty corners in the shootout after the match remained tied at 1-1 following 60 minutes of regulation time.

Only Manpreet Singh found the net for India, while Sardar singh, Harmanpreet Singh and Lalit Upadhayay were denied by Lovell. World No. 1 Australia on the other scored through Aran Zalewski, Daniel Beale and although Indian goalie PR Sreejesh saved Matthew Swann and Tom Craig’s efforts, Jeremy Edwards scored from the last kick to record their 15th Champions Trophy title, four more than second-placed Germany.

India however will feel proud of their efforts after matching Australia stick to stick for most part of the 60 minutes and could have easily sealed a victory had their strikers been lethal enough. But they failed and the Kookaburras came out on top in what was the 37th and final edition of the Champions Trophy which will soon be replaced by the Hockey Pro League.

The ‘Men in Blue’ had started well and by the 18th minute had three penalty-corners but Hermanpreet failed to clear the Australian defence with all of his three flicks blocked. Their best opportunity however had come seven minutes earlier when young Dilpreet Singh’s deflected shot fell for SV Sunil in-front of an open goal but he could not control the ball.

Australia then took the lead from their first and only penalty corner of the match. It was in the 24th minute and after Sreejesh had denied Aaron Kleinschmidt with a brilliant save that Australia secured the corner and Blake Govers made no mistake to put his side on the front.

But India bounced back in the 42nd minute through Vivek Sagar who scored after Manpreet’s blocked shot fell to him. Having equalised India soon went for the kill but luck did not favour them with Manpreet denied twice by Lovell, who put his body on the line everytime the opposition attempted to score.

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This was Australia’s 83rd win against India in 122 meetings, with India winning only 22, while the other 19 ended in draws.

Meanwhile, hosts Netherlands won the bronze medal after defeating Olympic Champions Argentina 2-0 in the third-fourth finish playoff match. Belgium defeated Pakistan 2-1 in the penalty shootouts after holding them to a 2-2 draw in the fifth-sixth position play-offs match.