India made an appealing start by taking a first-half lead however its defence broke down later on as the group lost the 4th hockey Test 1-5 to Australia and yielded an undisputable 3-1 lead in the five-match series on Saturday. The last match of the series will be used Sunday. India had actually won the 3rd match after losing the very first 2 contests. Return male Dilpreet Singh (25 th) struck early to offer India the lead after an undaunted protective display screen by Harmanpreet and Co. in a goalless very first quarter. India’s defence fell apart towards the fag end of the 2nd quarter with Jeremy Hayward (29 th) and Jake Whetton (30 th) scoring in area of 50 seconds. Tom Wickham (34 th) extended the Kookaburra’s lead, prior to Hayward finished his brace (41 st). Matt Dawson went into the scoresheet in the 54 th minute with a low volley strike that passed by Krishan Pathak. Pathak, who can be found in location of the skilled Sreejesh, nevertheless, made some reputable conserves to conserve India from more embarrassment. On a sultry afternoon, the hosts fired in all cylinders with Harvey producing some magnificent raids from the midfield. The world No. 1 group had a hard time to breach an undaunted Indian defence, which was held securely by Sreejesh throughout a goalless very first quarter. Pathak brought out flying colours and made a remarkable conserve in the 2nd quarter to keep Nathan Ephraums at bay. It appeared India might level the series when Dilpreet struck a fantastic objective to hand them the lead versus the run of play. From the top of the striking circle, Dilpreet rapidly pierced the defence and made a dogleg prior to smashing it into the bottom corner. India’s lead lasted for about less than 5 minutes with player-of-the-match Hayward bringing up the equaliser with a wonderfully put drag-flick. He dragged the ball long previously despatching it to the leading right corner at a lightning-fast speed as it passed by Pathak prior to he might respond. From being 0-1 down, the world top went 2-1 up in the blink of an eye when Whetton struck off a Jack Welch help, revealing his poaching ability. After getting the ball, he divided the defence from the top of the D, rose in prior to his amazing strike. It appeared to be the turning point as the Indian defence quickly went on to lose its speed and energy with the house side stacking more pressure. Wickham was 2nd time fortunate after his very first effort was warded off from close quarters. The shot wanted to have actually been conserved by Sreejesh however the ball appeared and entered into the internet to contribute to India’s torment. There was no recalling for Australia as they took a commanding 4-1 lead entering into the last quarter with Hayward finishing his brace. The similarity Harmanpreet, Hardik Singh and Nilakanta Sharma satisfied and produced chances however were unable to discover the target and match their heavyweight competitors. India struck a last-gasp objective to beat the hosts 4-3 in the 3rd Test here on Wednesday to keep the series alive at 1-2 entering into the penultimate Test. India had actually directly lost the opening Test 4-5, while it caught Blake Govers’ hattrick to decrease 4-7 in their next component.
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