June 14, 2011
India sneak past Australia 5-1/2 to 5 in the second game of the FIP Polo World Cup - Zone D playoffs being played in Malaysia.

 

Click here for more images from the FIP Polo World Cup Zone D playoffs

India, who had 1/2 goal advantage, beat Australia 5-1/2 goals to 5 in a thriller with Samir Suhag stealing the show with four goals. Vishal Chauhan scored the other. Australian scorers were Zac Hagedorn and Matt Grimes (2 each) and Alec White one.

Malaysia team coach Carlos Pando, warned the Malaysians to watch out India, who showed great character to stop the Australians.
"We need to keep a tight rein on India's No 3 (Samir Suhag) who scored four goals against Australia. He is a smart and solid player, who makes the team. He is certainly dangerous."

The Indian ace (Handicap 5), aged 36, is the most experienced player, having represented India four times at the World Cup.

India Survive Pressure Cooker Aussie Attack
(Source: http://ajpolo.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/15jun11-leye-articles.pdf by Sunleye-Solawumi Olaleye)

The last time these two gladiators of polo had a face-off was at the last World
Cup Finals in New Zealand in 2007. Then, India ran away with a close 13-11
victory. Last night the victory would be even not that clear cut; five and half to five
(5-1/2 - 5), with India only managing half a goal to survive this battle.
So pissed off with the loss was one of the Aussie players that when he
came right out of the pitch, he sent the first object he came into contact with, a
plastic chair, reeling into the air with a looping kick that worshippers of the Bend
it like Beckham slogan would have been massively proud of.
I'm sorry you are disappointed. Hard luck it is, I had tried to sooth him up
as I gently asked him what he thought had gone wrong. “This is bad. We didn't
fight for each other. We were not together as a team on the pitch…”
That was all he could get to say about the match before his equally
disappointed coach, Glen Gilmore, breezed in to stop further conversation,
saying: "Hey, hey, what is happening right here?” And then, with the ostensible
excuse he needed to do team-talk first, he had the interview terminated.
On the part of the India team, their most experienced player, Tarun
(handicap 3), says it was one of the toughest matches he ever played for the
national team. "Don't even let us talk about whether this was a tough one," Tarun
said in-between heavy breathing. "It was almost tougher than tough."
Later the coach of the Aussies, Gilmore, after having gained back his
calmness, would say of the match as being heavy in defence formation.
"They were very strong in defence. We tried to break their defensive formation
down, but it was so difficult." Reacting to the low scores, he said maybe it was
not only the Indians that were defensively motivated. "Maybe both of us had
strong-arm defensive tactics. Because if we took our last encounter to bear when
we scored 24 goals in-between the two of us, with them winning by 13-11, then
we could say there was a little bit of strong defensive tactics on both sides. In
today's encounter, all the two of us could muster are 10 and a half goals.
"We probably would not have lost to them if not for their captain, Samir, a
five handicapper. He was very strong for them. In fact, he scored four out of their
five and a half goals. Buy I think it was a nice match anyway."