The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : Australia beats India, lifts title

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 19, 2004

Sport

Sport - Hockey

Australia beats India, lifts title

CANBERRA, APRIL 18. Australia won the four-nations Challenge men's field hockey tournament on Sunday with a 3-0 win over India, while South Africa took third place with a 2-1 victory over Malaysia.

The Kookaburras needed 31 minutes to open the scoring, a Travis Brooks field goal. India, which lost 5-0 to Australia in the round-robin section, remained just one goal down until the last 13 minutes.

A 57th-minute Michael McCann field goal doubled Australia's advantage and Andrew Smith clinched the victory with a 68th-minute field goal.

Australia won all four of its game in the tournament, scoring 22 goals and conceding two.

Two goals by Greg Nicol gave South Africa its win over Malaysia. Nicol converted penalty corner attempts in the fifth and 44th minutes as South Africa built on a 1-0 halftime lead. Malaysia came back with a 62nd-minute penalty corner goal by Kuhan Shanmuganathan.

It was South Africa's first win of the tournament after it lost its three round-robin games.

Malaysia, which is three places higher in the world rankings than South Africa at No. 10, beat South Africa in the round-robin phase for its only victory of the tournament. — AP

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