The Indian hockey team ended their Australia [Images] trip on a disappointing note, losing both their matches against a development squad.
The Sandeep Singh-led side, which had gone down 3-5 to the Australian Development squad on Tuesday night, lost 2-5 on Wednesday, their second straight defeat at the hands of the squad, coached by Ric Charlesworth.
The home side scored through Hotchkis Daniel (14th minute), Geoffrey Cock (18th), Liam de Young (21st), Jason Wilson (53rd) and Mark Patterson (61st min), while Shivendra Singh (10th) and Sandeep (46th) reduced the margin for India.
India took the lead at the State Hockey Centre when Shivendra deflected Sandeep's shot past goalkeeper George Bazeley.
But the lead did not last long as Australia equalized four minutes later when Daniel beat goalkeeper Baljit Singh after being set up by midfielder Jonathan Charlesworth.
Cock edged the Australian side ahead following a goalmouth melee and they further consolidated their lead when skipper Young collected a pass from Patterson to put them up 3-1.
India pulled one back after the break when Sandeep sounded the board, flicking a penalty-corner past goalkeeper Bazeley.
Much to India's dismay, Wilson and Patterson went on to sound the board and complete the rout.
Earlier on Tuesday night, India went down 3-5 to the same opponents.
India conceded the lead after just 10 minutes when Jason Wilson found the net but levelled the score six minutes later through Sandeep.
Subsequently goals from Nick Budgeon (22nd), Joel Carrol (27th), Young (52nd) and Patterson (66th) sunk India, who managed to reduce the margin through V Raghunath (37th) and Tushar Khandker (64th) in the rain-marred match.
India's coach-in-charge Harendra Singh was disappointed with the team's overall performance and admitted that a lot of work needs to be done to bolster the defence.
The Indian team flies to New Zealand [Images] on Thursday where they will take on the hosts in a four-Test series at Wellington and Auckland.
The first match will be played on Saturday.
