The Indian men's hockey team suffered an embarrassing 0-7 drubbing at the hands of defending champions Australia to earn a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Monday.
Australia blew away India with their whirlwind speed and relentless attacks, extending their dominance of the CWG stage. Since hockey's introduction at the Games in 1998, Australia has always stood on top of the podium.
This is India's third defeat against Australia in a CWG final, having lost to them in the 2010 and the 2014 editions of the Games.
Nathan Ephraums and Tom Wickham scored a brace each while Blake Govers, Jacob Anderson, and Flynn Ogilvie also found the net in the lop-sided contest. Australia pumped in five goals in the first half to take the game away from India.
The other time India suffered such a heavy defeat in CWG was in 2010 edition in New Delhi, where Australia hammered the hosts 8-0.
Such was India's struggle that the team could not secure a single penalty corner. Australia secured three penalty corners inside the first 10 minutes and broke the deadlock from the third through Govers, whose flick went in between India custodian PR Sreejesh's legs.
A minute before the first quarter, Ephramus scored from a counter-attack along the right flank. It was raining goals for Australia with Anderson making it 3-0 in the 22nd minute, scoring off a rebound, tapping in from close range after Sreejesh made the initial save.
India's only shot on goal came in the 24th minute but Akashdeep Singh's reverse hit was saved by Australian goalie Andrew Charter.
Australia added two more goals to their tally in a span of two minutes before half time through Wickham (26th), who deflected in Tim Brand's pass, and Anderson (27th) to take complete control of the match at half-time.
An injury to Manpreet Singh after a collision with an Australian player in the second quarter made life more difficult for the Indians as the skipper didn't take the field in the last two quarters.
In the 42nd minute, Ephramus scored his second goal with a neat deflection before Ogilvie added another four minutes later. Six minutes later, Australia scored another but the goal was disallowed after India went for the referral.