After holding Germany to a draw in their opening fixture, Indian women caved in tamely to Australia, suffering a 2-6 defeat in the four-nation Hockey tournament at Essen in Germany on Sunday.
40 years back, on 15 March 1975, the Indian Men Hockey team accomplished a historic feat against Pakistan in the finals of the 1975 Hockey World Cup wherein they beat the opponents 2-1 to earn the title of 'Champions'.
Four key players, including ace drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh and midfielder S K Uthappa, were dropped from India's 18-man squad for the Hockey World League semi-final, in Antwerp, Belgium, from June 20 to July 5. Besides Rupinder and Uthappa, forwards Mandeep Singh and Satbir Singh got the axe.
Vandana Kataria slammed a hat-trick as India thrashed minnows Russia 10-1 to enter the quarter-finals in the Junior women's hockey World Cup in Monchengladbach, Germany, on Tuesday.
There was no let up as the Aussies kept pressing hard from the start, while India hardly enjoyed possession, which was further compounded by an injury to skipper Manpreet Singh.
Asian Games champions India came from a goal down to clinch an unimpressive 2-1 victory over hard-working Japan on the opening day of the 25th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament in Ipoh on Wednesday. Squandering a series of scoring chances created by defence-splitting crosses that sailed across the goalmouth, India managed to earn full points against the lowly-ranked rivals through goals from young drag flicker Harmanpreet Singh (24th minute) and captain Sardar Singh (32nd) after Kenji Kitazato (17th) gave Japan the lead. Earlier, Pakistan banked on two goals from Muhammad Arslan Qadir to open their campaign with a 3-1 victory over Canada in extremely humid conditions at the Sultan Azlan Shah Stadium. Qadir opened the account with a field goal in the 27th minute and converted a penalty corner a minute later to give Pakistan a two-goal lead. Canada then pulled one back through Richard Hildreth's flash strike, but Muhammad Arshad capitalised on a 52nd-minute penalty corner to seal Pakistan's victory.
Defending champions Australia will face Germany in the title clash of the Champions Trophy hockey championship in Melbourne on Sunday after Germany advanced to the final despite losing 3-4 to The Netherlands on Saturday.
Australia's men's hockey coach Ric Charlesworth has slammed London Olympic schedulers for lumbering his team with three early starts in their round-robin matches at the Games.
The opening day of the Hero Hockey World League Final witnessed a major upset as lower-ranked Argentina put up a spirited display to outclass London Olympic silver medallist Netherlands 5-2, while world number two Australia eked out a narrow 3-2 win over Belgium in Pool B at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium on Friday.
Olympic and world champions Netherlands will meet hosts Argentina in the women's hockey World Cup final on Saturday.
Olympic and World champions Netherlands will meet hosts Argentina in the women's hockey World Cup final Saturday. It will be a repeat of the Champions Trophy final in Nottingham in July when Argentina beat the Dutch 4-2 for their third successive title.
Australia beat Spain to enter World Cup last four for 12th time on the trot
The Spaniards came back from three goals down to snatch a 5-3 victory in the men's Champions Trophy hockey tournament.
New Zealand's women have reached the Olympic field hockey semifinals for the first time by knocking out Germany in a 0-0 draw at Riverbank Arena on Monday.
India put up a lion-hearted performance to beat South Africa 3-1 in their final Pool A match in New Delhi but it was not enough to guarantee the home team a place in the semi-finals as the reigning silver medalist crashed out of the women's hockey event of the Commonwealth Games on goal difference.
The ace striker has been called to the pre-tournament hockey camp after recovering from an injury.
India need only a draw against their arch-rivals to steal a place in the HA Men's Challenge.
The Indian women's hockey team ended a three-match losing streak by upstaging Japan 2-0 in its penultimate pool match at the FIH World Cup at the Jockey Club in Rosario, Argentina, on Sunday. The team -- which was convincingly beaten in their first three matches by the Netherlands, Australia and Germany -- led 1-0 at half-time, with Rani Rampal scoring in the 14th minute.
An inspired Pakistan put their disappointing showing in the pool matches behind to stun World Cup and Olympics silver medallists the Netherlands 4-2 and reach the semi-finals of the Hero Champions Trophy hockey tournament, in Bhubaneswar, on Thursday.
The National Associations of Australia, England, India, Malaysia, and New Zealand have all put up extremely strong cases in an attempt to lure the sport's top properties to their territory, the FIH said.
India produced a lacklustre display and crashed out of the title race in the 22nd Lal Bahadur Shastri under-21 women's hockey tournament after losing 1-2 to Germany in Delhi on Friday. Germany plays New Zealand in the title round on Saturday. The Kiwis beat Australia 3-1 in another league match.
Travis Brooks scored a brace as Australia beat Pakistan 4-3 in the final.
New Zealand and Australia will reassess the security measures put in place for the forthcoming hockey World Cup in India in the wake of the reported terror threats issued to foreign teams during the 12-team quadrennial event.
England scored through Will Calnan's (25th minute) field strike and penalty corner conversion by Luke Taylor (44th) to register the comfortable win.
Archrivals India and Pakistan have been clubbed in the same pool in the 2010 hockey World Cup, which begins in Delhi on February 28. Apart from 1975 champions India and four-time winners Pakistan, Pool B also has Australia, Spain, England and South Africa. Defending champions Germany is the top seed in Pool A, which also has the Netherlands, Korea, New Zealand, Canada and Argentina.
World champions Australia showed their class with a 5-1 thrashing of Pakistan to maintain their unbeaten streak in the Azlan Shah hockey tournament in Ipoh on Monday.
Shivendra Singh saved the day for India with a timely equaliser as the home team played out a 3-3 draw against South Africa in a controversial match to finish fourth in Pool B of the hockey World Cup on Monday.
The inaugural match of the hockey World Cup between Spain and South Africa in New Delhi on Sunday was not only action packed but also eventful with the video referral being used for first time in the history of the prestigious quadrennial event.
Overall, the record stands 1-1 between the two sides as Pakistan had the last laugh in the 2006 Games in Melbourne.
His fifth goal of the tournament gave the Aussies a 2-2 draw with Argentina in the men's hockey tournament.
Dipika Pallikal-Karthik and Saurav Ghosal progressed to the semi-finals of mixed doubles squash competition at the Commonwealth Games on Friday, beating Rachael Grinham-Zac Alexander of Australia 11-9, 11-5 in the quarter-finals.
Title favourites Australia registered the biggest win in the history of the hockey World Cup, inflicting a humiliating 12-0 defeat on South Africa in a Pool B match.
Harmanpreet Singh came up with his second hat-trick of the tournament as defending champions India hammered Australia 6-2 to storm into the final of the Sultan of Johor Cup hockey tournament, in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, on Saturday.
The win confirmed India's berth in the 2023-24 Pro League.
The Aussies beat India in their last league match to top the table, ahead of India, in the Indira Gandhi Gold Cup hockey tournament.
Defending champions Australia on Friday named a 16-strong women's hockey squad, including 11 debutants, for the October 3 to 14 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
Australia finished on top of the standings despite losing 2-3 to Olympic champions Argentina earlier in the day. India, which needed just a draw to progress, finished second.
V R Raghunath's twin strike went in vain as Indian men's hockey team went down to Australia 3-4 in the second and final game to draw the two-match series 1-1 in Melbourne on Wednesday. Akashdeep Singh (6th minute) and Raghunath (22nd, 25th) scored for the visitors, while Australia's goals came from the sticks of Tent Mitton (13th) Jake Whetton (23rd) and Jeremy Hayward (38th, 54th). Playing with 10 men for large periods of the third quarter, India defended stoutly but were finally outsmarted by Australia just six minutes from the hooter.
Hockey greats Balbir Singh (Sr) and Ajit Pal Singh hailed India's Asian Games gold medal-winning effort but felt the players still have a mountain to climb to succeed at the World and Olympic level.
Talismanic midfielder Sardar Singh will lead an experimental 18-member India hockey team, which will be without as many as seven players including senior goalkeeper and vice-captain P R Sreejesh, in the 25th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup to be held in Ipoh, Malaysia next month.
