Dilip Tirkey (right) and Prabhjot Singh (third from left) celebrate a goal against Austria during their Olympic qualifier in Santiago on Sunday. (Reuters)

Santiago: India beat Austria 7-3 for their second consecutive win in the Olympic hockey qualifying tournament at the Prince of Wales Country Club on Sunday.

After being rocked by a second-minute goal, India bounced back through Dilip Tirkey (9th, 23rd), Shivendra Singh (51st, 55th), Ignace Tirkey (42nd), Bharat Chhikara (53rd) and Rajpal Singh (53rd).

Austria went into the lead when Robert Buchta scrambled the ball in from a counter-attack and kept India on their toes with two penalty corner conversions by Christian Minar (28th, 59th).

India made up for their first-half lapses with splendid attacking hockey in the second when they scored five goals in 13 minutes to take the game away from the Austrians.

For much of the first half, the two sides matched each other move for move and goal for goal. However, after the change of ends, India went on the rampage. The Austrian defence was simply torn apart by the speed and skill of the Indian forwards, evoking memories of the 7-2 drubbing of South Korea in the 2007 Asia Cup final in Chennai.

Austria scored in the second minute after a diagonal ball from left to right caught the Indian defence napping. Benjamin Stanzl beat William Xalco on the turn, ran 15 yards before crossing to Buchta who swatted home.

India were quick to recover and forced a penalty corner that Dilip converted with a well-angled hit to restore parity.

India then stepped up the pressure and received their second penalty corner. Yet again, Dilip was successful with a direct hit and India went 2-1 up.

On the counter-attack, Austria penetrated a slow-moving Indian defence and forced two back-to-back penalty corners. Goalkeeper Baljit Singh blocked the first attempt from Minar, but the Austrian specialist came good in his next try.

In the second half, India kept Austria under pressure and took a 3-2 lead in 42nd minute. Xalco’s long hit into circle came off the goalkeeper’s pads but Ignace Tirkey gained possession, did a half-turn and let fly a reverse hit to the net.

India then took a stranglehold of the match with a four-goal blitz in as many minutes. Shivendra picked up a waist-high rebound and swatted home for the fourth goal in the 51st, Chhikara made it 5-2 with a reverse hit after Shivendra set him up in the 53rd, Sardara then set up two goals for Rajpal (6-2) and Shivendra (7-2) to score in the 53rd and 55th minutes.

India relaxed for just a moment and Austria in a trice forced their sixth penalty corner that Minar converted in the 59th minute. After that, however, the match meandered and the Indians came away with another good win.

In another match, Russia fell to their second 0-8 defeat in two days, this time to Britain. India had put eight past Russia on Saturday.

Chile beat Mexico 4-0 with Felipe Montegu leading the score with three goals and Matias Amroso scoring the other. Mexico lost 0-11 to Britain on Saturday. (PTI)