Australia will press you, intimidate, go all out and take the game by the scruff of the neck. That, though, wasn’t how it transpired on Tuesday at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup. It was India who controlled the game early on. But it didn’t last to change a painful trend. The Aussies came back, equalised, took the lead, added a cushion and won 3-1.
What’s simple for the Kookaburras remains a riddle for India, even though Roelant Oltmans’ boys ticked most boxes to begin with. You need to prevent Aussies from striking early - India did that. You must take the lead to put them under pressure - India achieved that too. You need to match them attack for attack - India had that in place as well. What’s it then that couldn’t produce a win against Australia, once again?
The answer lies in not making it count when you have the opponents under the pump.
India asked enough questions from Australia and eventually struck in the 26th minute through Harmanpreet Singh. But instead of lifting India, the goal woke up the Australians, who raised the intensity to score an equalizer through Eddie Ockenden in the last minute of second quarter.
‘We still have to learn to win’
It’s quite telling, when a coach admits “we still have to learn to win”. But here Oltmans was talking particularly in context of Australia.
A top team will know it’s not doing something right when it hasn’t beaten a particular opponent more than once in multi-nation tournaments since 2014. India’s last win against Australia came at the 2015 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup - a 4-2 victory at the league stage.
In terms of bilateral tours, India won last November when they drew the two-match series in Australia 1-1.
“It is not about matching, it is about winning. That is something we still have to learn,” Oltmans said after the match on Tuesday.
“Until we scored our goal, we played fantastic. After the first two minutes, we controlled the game. We had lots of good attacks. But after we led, it started going down. That is, of course, something you have to avoid,” he added.
Interestingly, his Australian counterpart Colin Batch mentioned the same reason for India’s defeat.
“When you are on top, you got to take full value. Perhaps India could have scored more than one goal (when they were controlling the game). You take your chances when you can,” Batch said.
An unlucky third goal?
Australia added a cushion to their 2-1 lead when Tom Wickham was allowed to roam freely in the circle before hitting the goal. None of the Indian sticks were seen stretched to block Wickham, surprising many in the stadium.
“A bit unlucky with the third goal,” Oltmans explained. “From our point of view it was a clear foot from one of the Australian players. But that was no reason (for the defenders) to stop (and wait for the whistle), but that happens at times. All this is part of the game.”
A forced change and dire measures
The Indian thinktank was forced into making a change, and a crucial one at that. PR Sreejesh twisted his knee while lunging to make a save and limped off the field. It was the end of the match for him, bringing Akash Chikte in.
To the young custodian’s credit, he began well making a couple of saves and will add this experience to his learning curve.
“It’s too early to comment on Sreejesh’s injury. We’ll see after he goes through an x-ray. But it was not the turning point of the match. We did not continue playing the way we were doing before. That is for me the turning point,” Oltmans said.
Chikte was eventually taken off in the last six minutes to push an extra man up and leave the goal unmanned, with Rupinder Pal Singh as the kicking-back.
It was 11 vs 11 in the Australian half, but Oltmans said his players still haven’t figured out playing in such situations.
“While doing that, the execution and positioning of the players was not always good enough. That is something we really have to understand,” the coach said. “When you get possession (in that scenario), you have to be more clever with the execution.”
Execution is something India will have to look at more closely, especially after seeing Japan - India’s next opponents - giving New Zealand a run for their money in a 2-3 defeat. And if Sreejesh stays injured, the target to finish among top two for a place in the final will only get tougher.