On Sunday, June 15, the Indian men’s hockey team suffered their sixth straight defeat in the FIH Pro League 2024-25, going down 3-2 to Australia at the Sportcentrum Wilrijkse Plein in Antwerp.
The current European leg hasn’t gone to plan for India at all under captain Harmanpreet Singh and head coach Craig Fulton as their team once again lost to an opposition by a single goal-margin in the league with the FIH Hockey World Cup 2026 spot up for grabs.
In their sixth match on European tour, competing in the FIH Pro League 2024-25, India began impressively with a penalty corner goal from Sanjay in the third minute, making the scoreline 1-0. But then, they allowed Australia to not only get an equaliser in the next minute through a Tim Brand field goal, but also make it 2-1 with Blake Govers finding his name on the scoresheet with a field goal in the fifth minute as well.
The second quarter saw Australia push to double their lead and the result followed in the 18th minute when Cooper Burns converted a penalty corner to make it 3-1 for the Kookabooras. After the half-time break, the third quarter saw India play better hockey, and they managed to reduce the deficit to a single goal in the 36th minute when Dilpreet Singh scored for them from open play.
While India tried hard to get the equaliser for their first points in the FIH Pro League 2024-25 standings on the European tour, it wasn’t to be as the Australians were able to not only thwart their attack, but earned a few penalty corners as well. Ultimately, the contest ended in favour of Australia with a 3-2 margin, earning nine penalty corners to India’s three, while their opponents also spent some time in the sin bin with a green card followed by a yellow card.
The last two matches of India’s FIH Pro League 2024-25 campaign will happen against the hosts Belgium in Antwerp next week, when they will be looking to add to their 15 points in the league after 14 matches played.