Indian hockey team survived some anxious moments before taming Austria 7-3 as they registered its second successive win in the Olympic qualifiers tournament being played at Santiago in Chile on Sunday.
Austria stunned India through a second-minute goal by Robert Buchta, who collected a fine pass by Benjamin Stanzl before slotting it home. Surprised by the sudden onslaught, Indian team got their act together and restored parity seven minutes later through experienced Dilip Tirkey, who scored in a splendid fashion on a penalty-corner.
But the Austrian team showed enough signs of resistance to their opponents, as they weren’t ready to give up so easily. They had given a clear indication that they were not in awe of their illustrious opponents of the day.
Dilip Tirkey shot his team ahead (2-1) again thorough a penalty-corner conversion in the 23rd minute of the play. However, Austrian team didn’t let the pressure mounting on them, they started mounting pressure on Indian citadel and as a result earned a series of penalty corners.
The Indian half-line did well with their trademark searing runs with the ball, but the Austrian defense managed well to put them at bay and also cut them from their partners when approaching the circle.
Austria bounced back and levelled the game (2-2) five minutes later on a stinging direct hit by Christian Minar that sounded the board. Both the teams went into the breather with a 2-2 scoreline.
On resumption, Ignace Tirkey put India ahead another time in the 41st minute and from thereon the game was nothing but a walk in the park for the higher ranked Indians, who resisted some stiff challenge from the fast paced Austrian counter-attacks for the large part of the game.
Indian attackers let the floodgates open for the team, as they thudded 4 goals in so many minutes including a brace by Shivendra Singh and apiece by Bharath and Rajpal Singh helping their side to register a resonating victory over their opponents.
Christian Minar further reduced the margin for his team through a penalty-corner in the 59th minute as the entertaining match ended on the final score of 7-3 in favour of India.
Great Britain and India are leading the point’s table after the end of the second day of competition, but the top teams have yet to meet each other. The World-Hockey Olympic Qualifier continues on Tuesday in Santiago when Mexico meet India, Austria takes on Russia and host Chile conclude the day against Great Britain.
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