Kookaburras Draw with India
The Kookaburras have dominated India in game two at the Azlan Shah Cup but failed to convert their many opportunities, resulting in a 1-1 draw in Malaysia.
Following a similar trend to their first game of the tournament against Malaysia in which they won 2-1, the Kookaburras controlled the majority of play but with key goal scorers such as Grant Schubert, Des Abbott and Jamie Dwyer missing from the line up they were unable to get reward for their play.
Despite having several more penalty corner attempts and dominating the circle penetrations (35 to 5), the Kookaburras sole goal came from 19 year old Jacob Whetton who scored his first international goal in only his second match.
The Kookaburras controlled the play from the opening whistle, with Glenn Turner and Whetton having two genuine chances in the first six minutes that were not converted.
After taking the lead at the 14 minute mark and controlling the game, India scored a goal against the run of play at the 23 minute mark from their first penalty corner attempt, while Australia were unable to get a shot on target from any of their three penalty corner attempts in the first half.
The Kookaburras again started the second half full of attack, forcing India into making many mistakes with their solid defence, but once again were unable to make India pay on the scoreboard despite great chances including a shot from Simon Orchard in the 50th minute that failed to find the target from close range, with the score remaining 1-1 at full time.
Despite the draw the Kookaburras showed some great signs in general play and continued to get game time into its younger players with the likes of key players Jamie Dywer, Mark Knowles, Rob Hammond, Eddie Ockenden and Luke Doerner not competing in this tournament.
– Hockey Australia
