NEW DELHI, February 6: The Australian Universities team warmed up for the Nehru Champion Colleges Hockey Tournament starting on February 11, outclassing the Delhi University champion side Sri Aurobindo College 3-0 in an exhibition match at the Shivaji Stadium here today.The Australians had less than a week's practice prior to the Indian tour, and the lack of understanding showed in the initial minutes. The poor state of turf also forced them to go easy. However, the Australians proved good enough even after playing at half pace.
The Australians went ahead midway through the first half, when Danile Brennan scored on a pass from the left by Aaron Oman. The visitors forced five penalty corners in the first half, but were denied by an alert Aurobindo goal-keeper Dharminder, on a couple of occasions.
Aurobindo missed two clear chances in the first session.The second session was a midfield drab, with the teams unable to find the target after initiating moves. However, the Australians managed to takeadvantage of the tiring Aurobindo defenders to make it 2-0 through Luke Kilmartin. Dharminder was done in by the bad bounce resulting from the patch-work inside the circle.
And, even as Aurobindo resigned themselves to defeat, the Australians pumped in one more as Phil Forostenko scored in a melee.
Parveen strikes hat-trick: Delhi Audit rode on Parveen Nag's hat-trick to thrash Delhi Tigers 6-0 in the Delhi Hockey Association league. Parveen Nag struck a hat-trick, while Manoj Baloni, Sushil Kumar and Amit Bakshi scored the goals. In other matches, Shahdara Heroes blanked Delhi Sports 3-0, while Delhi Police outclassed Railway Board 3-0. Vipul, Virender Singh and Rajinder Singh scored for Shahdara, while Vijay KUmar (2) and Sushil Chander scored for Delhi Police.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
