CANBERRA, 19 April 2004 — Australia overcame a brave defensive effort from injury-hit India to win the men’s Four-Nation Challenge field hockey tournament with a 3-0 victory here yesterday.
India had little choice but to play defensively as one of its leading strikers, Prabhjot Singh was injured and two defenders, Kanwalpreet Singh and Viren Rasquinha, were both carrying knocks.
Rajinder Singh, India’s coach, believed the injuries dictated the way his team played but took some positives from the tournament.
“Missing three main players on the field has an effect on the team, but we have definitely learned something here. We came to improve the team and still we have to work a lot to fight in the Olympics,” Singh said.
Interjeet Singh stepped into Prabhjots place and is playing his way into Olympic selection. Harpal Singh played 21 minutes of the second half in place of Kanwalpreet at full back and is also a prospect for Olympic selection for India.
Jatinder Pal Singh was not named in the team for the third time this tournament.
India held Australia to a 1-0 lead through Travis Brooks field goal four minutes before the break. Michael Boyce broke through India’s defense with an angled pass into the circle from the left sideline where Brooks was unmarked and got a touch under Devesh Chauhan who had charged from the cage.
India continued to play defensively in the second half and applied the fast break on Australias third penalty corner to have Arjun Halappa shoot wide of goal when he had Gagan Ajit Singh in space in the middle of the circle.
Troy Elder created Australia’s second goal for Michael McCann unmarked near the left post, before Andrew Smith added a third.
Earlier, South Africa defeated Malaysia 2-1 to clinch third place.
South Africa outplayed Malaysia in the first quarter with Greg Nicol converting South Africas first penalty corner after five minutes with a high drag-flick inside the right post for the only score of the first half.
Malaysia came back in the second quarter to force five unconverted penalty corners before the break. But the Malaysians could not take advantage when South Africa saw two players suspended, for five minutes.
Greg Nicol converted South Africa’s fourth penalty corner seven minutes into the second half, first flicking into Kumar Subramaniam in goal for Malaysia then taking the rebound on the half volley.
Malaysia scored seven minutes from time when Kuhan Shanmunganathan converted a penalty corner.
