Perth, May 17 (IANS): The Indian men's hockey team lost 2-5 to world no.2 Australia in the fifth and final match here to end their campaign with a whimper.
Trent Mitton (11th and 24th minutes), Flynn Ogilvie (3rd), Blake Govers (28th) and Tim Brand (43rd) scored for the hosts while Nilakanta Sharma (12th) and Rupinderpal Singh (53rd) sounded the board for India.
India had a chance to take an early lead but it was cleared by Eddie Ockenden.
Australia drew first blood in the third minute as Ogilvie managed to get the final touch.
Nilakanta Sharma spurned a glorious chance when he failed to trap a Mandeep Singh penalty corner in the eighth minute.
The hosts won their first penalty corner in the 10th minute, but the shot was blocked by India, and cleared away.
But their joy was shortlived as Australia's Mitton took advantage of a defensive error to fire the ball past Pathak to make it 2-0.
The Indians got one back when Gursahibjit played a pass into the circle from the left flank, and Nilakanta got the last touch to put the ball into the back of the net, and pull a goal back in the 12th minute.
Mitton made it 3-1 when he turned and fired the ball past PR Sreejesh into the back of the net after 24 minutes.
In the 29th minute, Gurinder Singh was controversially fined for pushing inside the 16-yard line by the umpire, with the resulting penalty corner witnessing Blake Govers fire a shot past Sreejesh's left side into the back of the net to make it 4-1 at the half-time.
India got a second goal after repeated forays, but it was all too little too late when in the 53rd minute Rupinderpal converted a penalty corner to make it 5-2.
