FINAL PRIZES
Tom Craig is man of the match today for his double brace and strong attack. Goalkeeper of the Tournament awarded to New Zealand’s Kyle Pontifex. Pakistan's Muhammad Arslan Qadir wins Top Goalscorer. His only competition was Australia’s Jamie Dwyer, who sat tonight’s match out with a calf strain, not wanting to risk an injury.
Australia takes multiple prizes today, with Blake Govers winning Player of the Tournament.
FULL TIME Final score Australia 4-0 India. Australia take their ninth Sultan Azlan Shah Cup title today, with a brace each from Tom Craig, and Matthew Gohdes, who is playing his 150th hockey match.
Australia’s keepers both did a brilliant job today; Charter defended two goals to stave off what was a good Indian attack at tonight’s final.
57’ GOAL! Matthew Gohdes scores again. Double goals for him and Tom Craig and Australia lead 4-0 with just over 2 minutes to go in the final. India can’t win from here, but they’ll look to salvage some face in the dying minutes of the game. Talwinder pushes towards goal but no luck.
8 minutes of play to go and India take a shot at goal. It runs wide – and now with 7 minutes to go Ogleby shoots and Harjot saves! Doesn’t look as though Australia can be beaten at this point.
FINAL QUARTER! Australia push back – and two big changes! Andrew Charter is back to keeping duties for the final quarter, with Indian keeper Chikte replaced by Harjot Singh. India’s attack is really going to have to work – they’ll need 3 goals in the next 15 minutes to force a shootout against Australia.
43’ GOAL! It’s Matthew Gohdes’ 150th game and he celebrates it with a score! Australia are now 3-0 ahead and it’s looking difficult for India now. It’s the final minute of Q3 and it's not without reason that it’s calld the Kookaburra quarter...
Australia have scored most of their goals in Q3, giving them that moniker. 47 seconds of play in the third quarter and Australia have scored two goals in the past 15 minutes.
CLOSE! Rupinder Pal Singh shoots and it’s defended a hair’s width away from goal! Penalty corner to India but again, they’re unable to convert. Jasjit shoots to Chinglensana as they attempt to penetrate again.
35’ GOAL! It's Australia’s second - and once more, it’s Tom Craig! A wide reach from Craig for his fourth goal of the tournament and second of this match! Final 10 minutes of the third quarter and Australia leads 2-0
PENALTY CORNER to India. Mark Knowles having some cross words with the umpire here...but it’s a non-appeal tournament so no luck. Harmanpreet shoots – it’s a decent attempt at 116km/h, but some brilliant defending from Lovell sees no score. 1-0 Australia still.
India penetrate and Nikkin Thimmaiah SHOOTS! It’s very close but an impenetrable Australian defense means no score.
SECOND HALF now underway. Rupinder Pal Singh and Harmanpreet have been a solid combine for India, and there has been some good defending despite the absence of India hockey’s Wall, star goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, who is resting ahead of the Olympics.
Going into the second half, India’s defence and attack have both been quite strong. Defence has been patchy this tournament, and let them down in their thundering loss to Australia in the league stages.
FINAL MINUTE of FIRST HALF and India are tackling and moving around. Jasjit has been good today, but India have committed 17 fouls tonight – almost twice as many as Australia, who have committed 9.
PENALTY CORNER to Australia. It’s their second one of the game tonight. Kieran Grovers takes it – and runs it wide! Score still 1-0 to Australia with 2 minutes to go in the first half! SV Sunil attempts to shoot and is awarded a long corner for his troubles. Jasjit pushes, goes to Surender, back to Jasjit, into the circle but is deflected off Dawson’s stick! Danish Mujtaba gathers it but...too late! Mark Knowles grabs the ball and Australia are back on the attack.
25‘ GOAL! Australia have opened the score with Tom Craig belting the ball into goal! It’s his third goal of the tournament.
Another long corner! Australia try to push it into goal with just over 5 minutes to go until half-time
Good work by Australia's Fergus Kavanagh! They’ll have a long corner, but it has no ultimate result. Australia push the ball right back into the circle again, but Mandeep puts in an absolute flier as he wrests the ball back into Indian possession. He’s racing towards the goal with a relatively clear path, but is run wide.
Australia’s Matthew Gohdes is in this and how! He’s been leading Australia’s charge, and now pushes the ball to Zalewski to try and open the scoring today, with 10 minutes remaining in the second quarter. Both teams are aggressive and going for broke here in Ipoh.
Q2 is now underway and Australia have confirmed they’ll be rotating their goalkeepers. Andrew Charter goes off the field, with Tyler Lovell coming in to replace him.
END OF Q1: It’s 0-0 with neither team scoring in the first quarter, but India have played well – they lead possession today, albeit by a slim margin; 52% to India, 48% to Australia.
India are pushing to try and score in the final minute. Harmanpreet is attacking with two Australian defenders on his tail. Now 40 seconds to go!
Another long corner with 3 minutes to go! Chinglensana tries to chip it into goal, but is unable to capitalize.
Final 5 minutes of Q1: And again, Australia penetrate the D! No score yet, however, but Australia are on the attack and how.
Australia with a circle penetration but there’s a deflection. They’re awarded a penalty corner and they have a 15% PC conversion rate. No score, however, with the ball bouncing off the gloves of keeper Akash Chikte.
Long corner but no team able to build. India have possession with Talwinder on fire at the moment!
Australia’s Tristan White is penalized for pushing into the back of Mandeep. India’s Nikkin Thimmaiah, who chipped in with scoring yesterday, is pushing with the long corner but Australia and their strong attack have possession again with Simon Orchard trying to get the ball through. Zalewski tries to grab the ball but Talwinder takes it!
India push back! We’ve got a game on our hands as Q1 commences.
Players are now walking out onto the field. It’s 8p.m. local in Ipoh, Malaysia.
Australia’s Jamie Dwyer won’t be playing today – he has a calf strain, and has said he does not want to risk any injury with 2016 an Olympic year. He won’t be able to beat leading goalscorer Muhammad Arslan Qadir of Pakistan at this tournament.
Japan’s players have stayed back as spectators for the India-Australia match today.
The final of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2016 will take place this evening in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia. Australia are table toppers, having won every match they have played in the league stages of th tournament.
India, meanwhile, beat hosts Malaysia 6-1 yesterday to secure a finals berth against the dominant Men in Yellow. The team were earlier up against New Zealand for a spot in the finals, and had they won that match, would have progressed directly. That loss meant an additional barrier in their path.
India are playing without star goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, who is a significant part of their defence. He is replaced by Akash Chikte.
Australia are the most successful team at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, with 8 titles since the 1983 inception of the tournament. India have 5 titles to their name, although the last of those came in 2010. Australia last won in 2014, beating Malaysia to the title, and were finalists last year, losing to New Zealand in a closely fought match that the Black Sticks eventually won on the back of penalties.
The Roelant Oltmans-coached Indian side have not been very consistent at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup this year. Although they opened their tournament with a 2-1 victory over Japan, that was followed up with a resounding loss to an extremely dominant Australian side, who beat them 5-1.
Meanwhile, Australia have not just won each match they played, but done so by a significant margin. They registered a 5-1 victory against both India and Malaysia, 4-0 against Pakistan, 1-0 against New Zealand, 3-1 against Japan and finally, 3-0 against Canada.
India’s lack of consistency and a weak defense will mean that Australia, already the strongest side, with a powerful offensive attack, are firm favourites to win here – and if they do, will seal their 9th title at the tournament.
Playing XI
India
Goalkeepers– Harjot Singh, Akash Chikte, Defenders– Rupinder Pal Singh, Jasjit Singh Kular, Kothajit Singh, Surender Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Midfielders– Danish Mujtaba, Chinglensena Singh, Manpreet Singh, Sardar Singh (Captain), SK Uthappa, Harjeet Singh and Forwards– Talwinder Singh, Mandeep Singh, SV Sunil, Ramandeep Singh and Nikkin Thimmaiah.
Australia
Goalkeepers— Andrew Charter, Tyler Lovell, Defenders— Chris Ciriello, Mark Knowles, Tim Deavin, Fergus Kavanagh, Matthew Dawson, Andrew Philpott, Josh Beltz, Midfielders— Simon Orchard, Eddie Ockenden (Captain), Tristan White, Aran Zalewski, Kiel Brown and Forwards— Jamie Dwyer, Glenn Turner, Jake Whetton, Kieran Grovers, Jeremy Hayward, Trent Mitton, Tom Craig, Dylan Wotherspoon, and Blake Govers.
