Chennai: The high-voltage semifinal in the Asia Cup hockey against Pakistan at Hyderabad was the tonic that India needed to complete their success story with the title in their pocket. The brawl and the controversy spurred the Indians, much like the famous wins Pakistan scored against India in cricket in the 1980s when the chips were down.
Ask PR Sreejesh, the goalkeeper of the Indian team and you get a fascinating story of how a young Indian unit turned the heat on their rivals. “It was not (Gurbaj) Singh’s fault. The Pakistani left-half (Kashif) Ali hurled some expletives words towards him. And when Gurbaj wanted to know why he was abusing him, Kasif hit him. It is unethical for a player to hit a rival player. A match between India and Pakistan is always big. We all were pumped up and wanted to give our best against them,” Sreejesh told The Times of India on Sunday.
“The brawl gave us a huge boost and everyone on the field became desperate for victory. It was the final match for us and we are happy to win it and the cup in the end. At present, our team is the best in the world and we’ve played high-class hockey in the Asia Cup. We’ve the ability to beat any team at any venue,” added the 20-year-old, who was adjudged the best goalkeeper in the event.
India’s captain Gurbaj, who returned to his village Ferozepur in Punjab on Saturday, said it was a big match for both India and Pakistan, but their Asian counterparts were playing power hock ey and were going for rough and wild tackles, which affected the spirit of the match. “Our boys never get into on-field fights, but that was a different situation. I just asked Kasif to rein in his emotion and play properly, but he did not listen. I did not want to pick up a fight. But the field umpire tackled the situation nicely,” Gurbaj explained.
According to Gurbaj, the team carried the spirit in the final against the mighty Koreans and it was a dream to win the match after trailing 0-2 in the first 59 minutes. “It was almost impossible to come back into the game after Korea took a 2-0 lead, but we’re desperate to win. When SV Sunil reduced the margin (1-2) we believed in ourselves,” the skipper added.