Akashdeep Singh scores hat-trick, but India lose 4-5 to Oz

Singh (10th, 27th, 59th) scored thrice while skipper Harmanpreet Singh (31st) converted a penalty corner for India

Akashdeep Singh’s hat-trick went in vain as India conceded two late goals to lose 4-5 against Australia in the high-scoring first hockey Test of the five-match series here on Saturday.

Singh (10th, 27th, 59th) scored thrice while skipper Harmanpreet Singh (31st) converted a penalty corner for India. Australia’s goals were scored by Lachlan Sharp (5th), Nathan Ephraums (21st), Tom Craig (41st) and Blake Govers (57th, 60th) who found the back of the Indian net twice from penalty corners towards the fag end of the match. The second match of the series will be played on Sunday.

Graham Reid

India’s chief coach Graham Reid was expectedly disappointed with his team’s performance in the final stages of the match.

“It was a disappointing finish to what was probably a pretty good performance. We let ourselves down at certain stages specifically in two quarters but I think we came back well only to unfortunately hand it back to them [Australia] at the end. That’s something we have to get better at now,” Reid said.

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“The challenge now is to put a good performance together. One of the objectives of this tour is consistency, and that’s the challenge for us tomorrow.”

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