INDIA-PAKISTAN LEAGUE MATCH REPORT:
India beat Pakistan 2-1 in a nail-biting finish at the Al Rayyan Stadium at the Asian Champions Trophy. Consequently, India has qualified for the finals. India sits comfortably at the top of the pool table with 12 points.

For India, the goals were scored by Rupinderpal Singh (36th minute) and Chinglensana (49th). On the other hand, for Pakistan the lone goal came from Muhammad Waqas (57th).

Pakistan dominated the proceedings in the first half. They remained superior in their circle penetrations and possession in opponent half.

A number of skillful moves of theirs went futile partly due to their own finish and a lot because of strong Indian defense wall presented by VR Raghunath and Rupinderpal Singh, and because of few good clearances by Manpreet Singh and Lakra.

In the 14th minute, Muhammad Rizwan Sr. in the center flank relayed the ball to Abdul Haseem Khan on the right in the Indian circle. Abdul, in-turn gave a cross-pass to an unmarked Shakeel Abbasi on the left of Indian post. Abbasi failed to connect.

Pakistan’s woes continued and in the 26th minute, Shakeel Abbasi wasted a sure chance from close range. Fareed Ahmed did the hard skillful work in the midfield, earned a free hit for Pakistan in the Indian quarter, but when the ball reached a lone Abbasi, the result was the same.

The consolation for India in the first half was a few fast paced moves mostly thrusted by VR Raghunath. In the 23rd minute, Raghunath dispatched a fast-paced ball for Chandi. Chandi set up Nithin Thimmaiah but it wasn’t trapped cleanly.

The Indian fans did develop some hope in the 27th minute when India earned a penalty corner. That went useless because the ball wasn’t stopped cleanly.

The teams went into the half time goal-less.

However, immediately after the lemon-break, in the 36th minute, the Indian fans got something to cheer about when an infringement against Danish Mujtaba got India a penalty stroke. The hearts pumped faster for everyone but Rupinderpal Singh. He remained composed and netted the ball on to the left of Pakistan goalkeeper Imran Butt — India led 1-0.

India came out in different colors in the second half. Their forward line was more synchronous and the team worked as a unit.

In 40th minute, defending a penalty corner, VR Raghunath charged up to Muhammad Waqas. Raghu was in-time as Waqas couldn’t even drag his click. This wasted a good equalizer opportunity for Pakistan.

As Abbasi kept missing sitters in the Indian circle, on one occasion, Chandi grabbed the ball, run from the center-line in the right flank and passed the ball to a perfectly placed Chinglensana at the top of Pakistan’s circle. He made no mistakes and the Indian supporters were delighted to see India go up 2-0.

This brought in maddening urgency from Pakistan. In the 56th minute, riding on Fareed’s stick-work, Pakistan earned a penalty corner. The flick that followed was blocked by Sreejesh, but on the rebound, the leading scorer of the tournament, Muhammad Waqas, whacked the ball into the nets. His stick was above his waist and Indian protested a lot.

Interestingly, this tournament has no arrangement for video-referrals. The maximum the umpire obliged was having a word with another umpire. The other one nodded within a second and the score-board read 2-1.

This brought in life in the game. Pakistan players became more relentless in their attacks. Sreejesh takes the credit of a few high-pressure blocks.

The last five-odd minutes witnessed high voltage action in the field. Four penalty corners were executed in this time – three for India and one, conducted in the last minute, for Pakistan.

After Rupinder failed to trap the ball in his stick on the first one, India gave chance to Raghunath on the next one. His flick was blocked by Imran Butt but another one was awarded to India. Came Rupinderpal again and this time there was no mistake from Dharamvir (injector) or Mujtaba (the stopper) or Rupinderpal. Unfortunately, the ball hit the horizontal bar, banged straight down on the turf and was subsequently cleared.

This followed two dangerous attacks from Pakistan. On a penalty corner, Rupinderpal cleared just before the whack into the net. Next one was a field attack, where, on the rarest occasions in this match, the defense stood many feet ahead of Sreejesh and Pakistan players reached inches away from him beating the Indians. Sreejesh gave a mouthful to his colleagues and saved the blushes for India.

The full-time hooter saved India from the Pakistan’s onslaught.

ANALYSIS: PAKISTAN FORWARDS LET THEIR MIDFIELD MARVELS DOWN:
An outwardly perspective of this game reveals what’s going right or wrong for either side.
Pakistan was not a losing side yesterday, India was lucky to garner full points.

Pakistan’s strength is its brilliant midfielders who do all the hard-work but their forwards haven’t done the work expected from them. In the previous games too, Pakistan has struggled on scoring the goals. Shakeel Abbasi and Haseem Khan got enough opportunities to strike, despite some scintillating goalkeeping by returning goalie PR Sreejesh. All good works of their mid-fielders thus went abegging.

On the other hand, for India, Raghunath and Rupinderpal remain the back-bone of their defense and half-backs – Manpreet and Birendra Lakra – offer great support work to them. Indian forward line has improved. The left-flank, courtesy Chinglensana Singh, dispatched a number of balls into the circle, a healthy sign. Chinglensana’s efforts were matched by Gurwinder Singh Chandi and Danish Mujtaba and to a certain extent, Dharamvir and young Sommanna Pradhan too. Other forwards – Akashdeep, Nithin — are not really clicking. Otherwise known for his consistency, winger SV Sunil looks totally off-color in the tournament.

Footnote: It looks like both the teams have made it a point not to enter into an argument with each other. Many a times, Shakeel Abbasi was seen diffusing the situation whenever mild deviation occurred. The forward stood between his team-mates and the Indian players, making sure that no one is too close to get physical with each other. Good spirit Abbasi, keep it up.