India loses 0-8 in hockey, win silver

World champions Australia displayed their overall superiority and drubbed India 8-0 to at the Dhyan Chand Stadium to retain the men’s hockey title at the ongoing Commonwealth Games (CWG) here on Thursday.

For India, who had to remain contended with the silver, this was the highest margin of defeat in the final of any major tournaments.

Earlier in the day, New Zealand got the hockey bronze as they edged past England 5-3 via tiebreaker.

After India reached the final defeating England, everybody thought the hosts would at least put up a good fight. But India on Thursday not only failed to rise to the occasion, they simply surrendered meekly to their vastly superior rivals, who outplayed India in all the departments of the Games.

While Indian defence, except Sardar Singh, failed to put up enough resistance to thwart the Aussie forays, there was hardly any sting in their attacks. Whatever raids they could force, proved abortive as the Indian front liners failed to finish.

India, however, could raise some hope as the final began when the hosts, with fine passes and combination, forced a number of attacks on rival fort. But all those went in vain as they failed to finish each time after reaching the rival D.

Soon after, Australia took the command with their midfielder Hammon Rob and forward Glenn Turner combining well to spearhead most of their attacks. The Aussies took the lead in the 19th minute to open flood gate for India when, to some extent, against the run of play, Jason Willson sounded the board capitalizing a long pass (1-0).

A couple of minutes later, the champions were awarded a penalty corner, which was neatly converted by Chris Ciriello ( 2-0).

After forcing a 2-0 lead, the Aussies, with fine running and passes, dominated the proceedings for the rest of the time. They scored acouple of more goals in the 28th and 34th minute through Jason Wilson and Luke Doerner, to take a 4-0 lead before the breather.

India forced their way to the rivals’ D and came near scoring just after the beginning of the second half, but Bharat Chiraka failed to utilize the chance.

The Australians continued their overwhelming domination in the second half as well, pumping in four more goals through a penalty corner conversion by Luke Doerner, and three more field goals that came through Simon Orchard, Jamie Dwyer and Glenn Turner (8-0).

In between, India got another penalty corner, but Sandeep Singh’s hit was too feeble to cause any damage.