Rio de Janeiro: The Indian women’s hockey team dished out a disappointing performance to suffer a 1-6 thrashing at the hands of a rampaging Australia in their third fixture at the Rio Olympics here on Wednesday.
The Indians, who are playing in the Olympics after a gap of 36 years, were simply outplayed by the higher-ranked Australians who exposed the defensive frailties of their opponents with a comprehensive win in a lop-sided match.
Jodie Kenny struck twice (43rd and 46th minute) while Kathryn Slattery (5th), Georgina Morgan (9th), Jane Claxton (35th), Georgina Parker (36th) scored once each to rout the Indians.
For India, Thokchom Anuradha scored the lone goal with just 8.3 seconds left on the clock.
The Australians, who were the 2014 World Cup losing finalists, laid siege of the Indian 25-yard with waves of attacking runs and forced seven penalty corners from which they scored four times.
India, on the other hand, got just one penalty corner which they failed to convert. They could barely string a goal-bound attack in the whole match as they suffered their second consecutive loss.
The Indian forwards could not make any opening and Rani Rampal was fielded for very less time. The margin of loss would have been bigger for India had goalkeeper Savita Punia not come up with some fine saves in the match.
With this loss, India are at the bottom of Pool B with just one point which they earned from the drawn match against Japan in their opening match. They had lost to Great Britain 0-3 in their previous match.
India have two matches to play in the six-team Pool B — against higher ranked Argentina and United States. Only the top four finishers will advance to the quarterfinals.
