Sharath Kamal wins TT singles gold after 16 years
BIRMINGHAM: In one of its worst performances in recent times, the Indian men's hockey team suffered an embarrassing 0-7 drubbing at the hands of defending champions Australia to settle for a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games here on Monday.
Australia blew away India with their whirlwind speed and relentless attacks, extending their dominance of the CWG stage.
Since hockey's introduction at the Games in 1998, Australia has always stood on top of the podium.
This is India's third defeat against Australia in a CWG final, having lost to them in the 2010 and the 2014 editions of the Games.
Nathan Ephraums and Tom Wickham scored a brace each while Blake Govers, Jacob Anderson, and Flynn Ogilvie also found the net in the lopsided contest.
It was a far cry from what was expected in a gold medal clash as a dominant Australia pumped in five goals in the first half to take the game away from India.
The other time India suffered such a heavy defeat in CWG was in 2010 edition in
New Delhi, where Australia hammered the hosts 8-0.
The Indians looked rusty and clueless as they conceded too much space to the Australians in the mid-field, which allowed the Kookaburras to make inroads.
The structure which the Indians are known for was nowhere to be seen. The defence looked shaky, while there was no co-ordination between the midfield and forward-line.
The past problem of misspassing and trapping returned to haunt the Indians. It allowed
Australia to play free-flowing hockey.
The Indians made very few circle penetrations and whenever they did, they lacked the final pass or looked out of sorts.
Such was India's struggle that the team could not secure a single penalty corner.
Australia secured their three penalty corner inside the first 10 minutes and broke the deadlock from the third through Govers, whose flick went in between India custodian PR Sreejesh's legs.
A minute before the first quarter, Ephramus scored from a counter-attack from the right flank.
It was raining goals for Australia with Anderson making it 3-0 in the 22nd minute, scoring of a rebound, tapping in from close range after Sreejesh made the initial save.
India's only shot at the goal came in the 24th minute but Akashdeep Singh's reverse hit was saved by Australian goalie Andrew Charter.
Australia added two more goals to their tally in a span of two minutes before half time through Wickham (26th), who deflected in Tim Brand's
BIRMINGHAM: Sharath Kamal showed age is just a number as the 40-year-old capped his best ever performance at the Commonwealth Games by winning the men's singles gold here on Monday.
After losing the first game that he should have closed, Sharath beat a much younger yet experienced Liam Pitchford of England 11-13, 11-7, 11-2, 11-6, 11-8 at the NEC arena.
Sharath, who had first won the singles gold back in 2006, had already claimed two golds here in the team and mixed pass, and Anderson (27th) to take complete control of the match at half-time. An injury to Manpreet Singh after a collision with an Australian player in the second quarter made life more difficult for the Indians as the skipper didn't take the field in the last two quarters.
In the 42nd minute, Ephramus scored his second goal with a neat deflection before Ogilvie added another four minutes later. Six minutes later, Australia scored another but the goal was disallowed for backstick after India went for the referral. doubles event alongside Sreeja Akula.
With this yellow metal, he increased his tally to a staggering 13 medals across five CWG appearances.
In the final, he was at his finest, firing winners from both sides. Long rallies away from the table was the order of the day and Sharath won majority of them.
He was also brilliant in cutting the points short with perfectly placed backhand winners.
In what turned out to be the final game of the title clash, Sharath led 6-1 before Pitchford
reduced the deficit to 5-6 by winning the best rally of the match.
Sharath absorbed the pressure to make it 10-6 after time out. He thought he had converted his second match point but the umpires awarded the point to his opponent as the ball was close to Sharath's body at the time of his retrieve.
He converted the next one to complete a memorable run in Birmningham.
G Sathiyan secured the bronze after a marathon battle against England's Paul Drinkhall.
Sathiyan bagged his maiden CWG singles medal after beating home-favourite Drinkhall 4-3 in front of a packed crowd.
The Indian thus avenged his men's doubles final loss against the same opponent by winning 11-9, 11-3, 11-5, 8-11, 9-11, 10-12 and 11-9.
The bronze was Sathiyan's sixth overall medal at the CWG since Gold Coast 2018.
On Sunday, Sathiyan paired up with the Sharath to claim the men's doubles silver after going down to the English duo of Drinkhall and Pitchford.