Kookaburras in full flight for Eddie's record breaking milestone
Published Sun 27 Nov 2022
The Kookaburras ensured Eddie Ockenden’s record breaking 400th international appearance matched the magnitude of the occasion as the world’s number one ranked team defeated India 7-4 at MATE Stadium in Adelaide.
Ockenden became the first Australian to reach the remarkable milestone as he ran out with the Kookaburras in front of family, friends and former teammates for the 400th time in a career that began 16 years ago.
The 35 year old is the seventh hockey player in history to play 400 internationals.
“To have the special occasion today was amazing. I can’t say thanks enough,” said Ockenden post match.
“I have had so many messages and calls from friends, people from Tassie, former teammates…I’ve had such a good life with the Kookaburras and I can’t say thank you enough to all the people I need to say thank you to.
“Every step along the way you have people who help you and I’m grateful for all of it.”
After prevailing 5-4 in Match 1 of the series yesterday, today’s Kookaburras win was built off the back of a hat-trick to Blake Govers, double from Jack Welch and goals to Jacob Anderson and Jack Welch.
Govers’ hat-trick gives him five goals for the series and continues an astonishing goals to games ratio of 121 goals from 130 appearances.
India threatened to spoil the party early on when captain Harmanpreet Singh opened the scoring in the 3rd minute.
The Kookaburras drew level in the 12th minute with Govers’ first and arguably best of his three goals. The ball from the rebound of a Jeremy Hayward drag flick came to Govers in the circle and he expertly gave himself room on the reverse to hammer a fierce strike low into the backboard.
Welch scored his brace in the space of seven second quarter minutes, firstly pouncing to knock the ball home from close range after Govers stung the palms of Indian goalkeeper Sreejesh, before glancing in a shot from the impressive Jake Harvie.
Hardik Singh pegged a goal back to make it 3-2 before Govers had his second three minutes before half time to leave the Kookaburras with a two goal advantage at the long break.
The only goal of the third quarter came from the stick of Mohammed Raheel courtesy of a cleverly worked penalty corner variation as India sniffed a comeback.
However when Anderson and Whetton scored within the space of 90 seconds early in the last quarter to make it 6-3, and when Govers converted a penalty stroke to bring up his hat-trick, it became a matter of what the final margin would be.
In a game that produced 29 penalty corners, the Kookaburras were forced to survived a string of Indian set pieces in the final 40 seconds.
The held out until the last one which saw India awarded a penalty stroke, Harmanpreet Singh converting a last minute consolation from the spot.
“We’ve still got a lot to work on,” said Player of the Match Jake Harvie.
“It’s a really special day today with Ed and really fantastic that we could get the win.”
“India is such a great side and for us this series is really important for our preparation for the World Cup.”
“We want to keep building with each session and each game we have together.”
Match 3 of the series is on Wednesday at 6.30pm local time (7.00pm AEDT).
Match Details
Kookaburras 7 (Govers 12’/27’/53’, Welch 17’/24’, Anderson 48’, Whetton 49’)
India 4 (Harmanpreet Singh 3’/60’, Hardik Singh 25’, Mohammed Rahell 36’)
@ MATE Stadium, Adelaide
Kookaburras: 2.Tom Craig, 4.Jake Harvie, 5.Tom Wickham, 6.Matthew Dawson, 7.Nathan Ephraums, 8.Johan Durst (gk), 9.Jacob Anderson, 10.Josh Beltz, 11.Eddie Ockenden (c), 12.Jake Whetton, 13.Blake Govers, 14.Dylan Martin, 16.Tim Howard, 17.Aran Zalewski, 18.Ben Rennie (gk), 21.Jack Welch, 23.Daniel Beale, 32.Jeremy Hayward
Kookaburras v India Series
MATE Stadium, Adelaide
Match 1 - Saturday 26 November (4.00pm local time, 4.30pm AEDT)
Match 2 - Sunday 27 November (4.00pm local time, 4.30pm AEDT)
Match 3 - Wednesday 30 November (6.30pm local time, 7.00pm AEDT)
Match 4 - Saturday 3 December (4.00pm local time, 4.30pm AEDT)
Match 5 - Sunday 4 December (4.00pm local time, 4.30pm AEDT)
Ticketing details: Available now through Ticketek
Broadcast: LIVE on FOX Sports, Kayo and livestreamed on LIVEHockey. The matches will also be streamed globally on Watch.Hockey (geo blocked in Australia and India). In India the matches will be shown on Star Sports First, Star Sports Select 1.
