Sports

India beat Australia in shootout, win third Sultan of Johor Cup title

Two-time champions India clinched the Sultan of Johor Cup after beating Australia 5-4 in a thrilling penalty shootout here on Saturday. Thus India ended a five-year title drought in the tournament. Both the teams were tied 1-1 after regular time. Then there was a shootout in which both the teams were tied at 3-3. Now the match reached ‘Sudden Death’. Nine penalty shots were required to decide the winning team.

Australia got the first chance, who fielded Cooper Burns but Indian goalkeeper Mohit Sasikumar defended it. India started with Vishnukant Singh who scored an easy goal. Then Liam Hart scored the first goal for Australia in the shootout. After this Sudeep’s shot went wide. The tiebreaker was 1-1 after the first two shots. Mohit then foiled Jaden Atkinson’s attempt and Uttam Singh got a penalty stroke as Sharda Nand Tiwary scored to give India a 2-1 lead.

Now Joshua Brooks came for Australia, he made the score 2-2. But Bobby Singh Dhami could not give India the lead. Australia scored a penalty stroke in the next attempt, with Joshua leading his team 3-2. Ankit Pal came for India who leveled the score at 3-3. Then the match reached ‘Sudden Death’. Vishnukant landed in ‘Sudden Death’ but he missed. Hart also could not score for Australia. Uttam Singh took India 4-3 in the next attempt. But Burns made the score 4-4.

Bobby Singh again missed his attempt and Brudy’s shot also went wide for Australia. Now both the teams were tied at 4-4, due to which the match had reached a dramatic turn. Sudeep showed restraint to make the score 5-4 while Joshua’s attempt failed and the Indian players celebrated the victory by running. Earlier, both the teams got off to a brisk start with goalkeeper Mohit putting up a brilliant defense from the start. Australia dominated but Uttam and Bobby tried to give India the lead.

These efforts also paid off as India took a 1-0 lead through Sudeep (14th minute) which lasted till the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Indian players continued their efforts for the lead. The Australian team also intensified the attack, although the Indian defense remained steadfast. Then Jack Holland (in the 29th minute) scored a goal and brought his team to level. The score was 1-1 in the first half. In the second half, both the teams were cautious but could not score the winning goal and the match reached a shootout.

Uttam Singh scored twice in the shootout, including the one in Sudden Death. At the same time, Vishnukant Singh, Ankit Pal, Sudeep Chirmako also scored goals. Burns Cooper, Foster Brody, Brooks Joshua and Hart Liam scored for Australia. India has won the title twice in this age group tournament – in 2013 and 2014 – while the team finished second in 2012, 2015, 2018 and the previous edition four times in 2019. The tournament was not held in 2020 and 2021 due to Kovid-19.

People News Chronicle

People News Chronicle author account is for interns, who are just new to our news agency. They are taught basics of wordpress and publishing through this account.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button