Kookaburras rebound to seal the series over India

The Kookaburras have won the best of five series against India after recording a come from behind 5-1 victory in Match 4 at Adelaide’s MATE Stadium this afternoon.

Despite dominating the early exchanges, the Kookaburras found themselves a goal down in the 25th minute before responding strongly in an emphatic display.

Jeremy Hayward scored a double, both from drag flicks, while Jake Whetton, Tom Wickham and defender Matt Dawson also found the backboard.

Kookaburras Head Coach Colin Batch said it was a pleasing performance off the back of Wednesday’s result.

“We started really well. The first seven minutes were very good and then India came back into the game,” said Batch.

“We had some pressure to deal with and we dealt with it well defensively and held them out…then we re-established our game so overall I was really pleased.”

“We were much better with the ball today. In Match 3 we were a bit conservative and played too narrow, so we opened up the game today.”

After a scoreless first quart, the game came alive in the second. Livewire Nathan Ephraums was only prevented from breaking the deadlock in the 22nd minute by a reflex stick save from India goalkeeper Bahadur Pathak.

Moments later India had the lead through a pinpoint shot on the reverse from Dilpreet Singh.

The Kookaburras then turned a deficit into a lead in the space of two minutes just before half time.

First Hayward struck with a well executed drag flick into the top corner before an unmarked Whetton at the back post struck when he did well to trap and knock home a stinging effort from Jack Welch after the Tasmanian had produced some sublime 3D skills and jinks to create the opening.

Wickham doubled the Kookaburras’ advantage four minutes into the second half with his first goal of the series.

When Hayward scored his second to make it 4-1 with a quarter to play the Kookaburras had one hand on the trophy.

The Australians remained defensively resolute to prevent India from mounting a comeback and Dawson put an exclamation mark on the result when he swatted a hard low drag flick into the backboard.

“Three wins now…it feels good but we’re continually building so we’ve got one more to go tomorrow,” said Hayward who was awarded the Player of the Match.

“The aim of the game is to score more than your opponent and you make that easier by letting in less, so that’s our aim.”

“We needed to tighten up defensively and we did that today.”

The fifth and final match of the series is at 4pm local time (4.30pm AEDT) tomorrow.

Match Details
Kookaburras 5 (Hayward 29’/41’, Whetton 30’, Wickham 34’, Dawson 54’)
India 1 (Dilpreet Singh 25’)
@ MATE Stadium, Adelaide

Kookaburras: 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, 16.Tim Howard, 17.Aran Zalewski, 20.Ky Willott, 21.Jack Welch, 22.Flynn Ogilvie, 23.Daniel Beale, 26.James Collins, 30.Andrew Charter (gk), 32.Jeremy Hayward

Team Line-ups

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.