KUWAIT CITY: India succumbed to their second consecutive defeat at the AFC U-20 Asian Cup Qualifiers, going down to Australia 1-4 at the Ali Sabah Al-Salem Stadium here.
Skipper Gurkirat Singh scored the lone goal for India while Garng Koul, Adrian Segecic and Max Caputo registered their names on the scoresheet for Australia.
Bikash Yumnam added to India’s woes as he scored an own goal.
India were beaten 2-4 in their opener by Iraq last week.
Trailing by two first half goals, India displayed lots of spirit in the second, and pulled one back through Gurkirat, whose sudden long ranger in the 63rd minute caught the Australia goalkeeper Jack Warshawsky on the wrong foot before hitting the post and going in.
It wasn’t the only time when India had the Australia defence in trouble.
In fact, on more than one occasion the Indians came close to bringing down the rival goal, but poor marksmanship and bad luck denied India at least a couple of goals that could have made the story of the day a little different.
After reducing the margin through Gurkirat, India had a golden chance to restore parity in the 76th minute.
The Indian captain was once again in the thick of things as he rounded off the advancing Aussie goalkeeper to send the ball across an empty goal.
Taison ran in from the other side to flick it, but it was blocked off the line at the nick of time. The post denied India another golden opportunity early in the second half when Himanshu Jangra cut inside in great style only to find his shot coming back after hitting the nearest upright on the left side.
—PTI

Press Trust of India