Australia marks another win over Pakistan by 2-0

Lahore : It was a drenched team of Australia that left the pitch with a 2 – 0 victory over Pakistan in game three of the four game test at the Darwin International Hockey Open tonight.

The first quarter went by with both teams pushing hard to get on the score board, but the weather hindered their opportunities. Nineteen minutes into the game and Jeremy Hayward scored a penalty corner goal, getting the Australia on the board just before the players had to abandon the pitch due to the weather.

The game pushed on five minutes later, and as the teams went into half time the score remained at 1 – nil to Australia.

Coming back from the half time break the rain eased, giving both sides more opportunity to gain goals. It was Trent Mitton who came through with the goods, scoring a penalty corner to take the score to AUS 2 – 0 PAK.

Both sides had only a few chances to increase their score as the clock wound down, but at the end of the day the weather slowed the game down and neither side could convert, giving the Australia their third win of the series.

Australia head coach Colin Batch said: “We’ve played in extreme heat this series, and tonight it wasn’t cold but they were very wet conditions which was quite difficult for the players; but we have to cope with those conditions –  and by and large I think we did.

“It was a very low scoring game with not many chances on both sides, we had just the three corners and they had a couple. I think a feature of our game tonight was our defending and our tackling, which was really, really good.

“We’re still experimenting with our line up and learning a lot. I think at this stage of our campaign it’s good to experience that in an international match against a team as good as Pakistan, and to learn from it. I’d still like to see us create more opportunity; they were few and far between tonight.”