Indian teams to compete during International Hockey festival

India's men's hockey team will compete in a four-nation event while the women's national team will be involved in a bilateral series with Australia under an International Hockey festival in Melbourne later this year.
The men's tournament, to be held in November, will feature India, hosts Australia, Malaysia and a fourth team to be confirmed later.
"India's participation in the event comes as a result of Hockey India's path-breaking Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hockey Australia, signed last year, which will see the Indian men's national team tour to Australia over the next three years," a Hockey India release said.

"Australia is a great place to play hockey. The hosts and Malaysia are always a formidable opponent, so it should be a very challenging tournament, and a good experience for the team and I am looking forward to the international Hockey festival this year," India's captain Sardara Singh said.
Chief Coach Roelant Oltmans said,"It will come in as a treat for all hockey fans globally, I am sure it is going to be a top notch tournament with some spectacular hockey on display by all the participating nations."
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Australia's first penalty corner came in the 10th minute when Jeremy Hayward's shot was blocked by goalkeeper PR Sreejesh.

Indian strikers Talwinder Singh lost his way at the top of the rival circle when he was dispossessed by the challenge from three defenders in the 12th minute. The Indian strikers thereafter did not mount a decent raid in until they got the first penalty corner in the 42nd minute, while Australia strengthened their stranglehold on the match.
Denied a goal in the first quarter, Australia exerted more pressure as they forced five penalty corners in the second quarter and scored twice.
Matt Dawson's penalty corner in the 17th minute rebounded off the right post and goalkeeper Sreejesh made two fine saves off the next penalty corners before Australia opened the scoring with a conversion by Trent Mitton in the 20th minute.

Three minutes later the Indian goal fell again when Daniel Beale's shot got deflected off Harmanpreet Singh's stick over the goalkeeper's shoulder. Before Sreejesh could try to palm the ball away, Aran Zalewski eased the ball into the net.
Australia were continuing to make life difficult for Indian defenders when Flynn Ogilvie made it 3-0 in the 35th minute. Picking the cross from right in the circle, he had plenty of time and space to get into position for a goal-bearing shot and defeated the custodian with a shot that brushed his pads before landing in the far corner of the cage.

The Indians pulled one goal back in a brief period during which they forced their two penalty corners in four minutes. Harmanpreet Singh's penalty corner flick in the 42nd minute lacked the force to get past the Australian defence, but VR Raghunath scored India's first goal with a low penalty corner shot that went into the boards to the left of the goalkeeper in the 45th minute.
But the Indian goal fell again within 30 seconds as Tristian White picked up the ball from the goalkeeper's pads to flick in and give Australia a 4-2 lead at the end of the third quarter.

Talwinder's reverse shot from the top of the circle opened up the space for Mandeep to deflect the ball in for India's second goal.
India's strikers came alive late in the game, but had a five-minute period of domination when they had a few shots at the goal, but Australian defenders held their ground.