New Indian Express: New India rising: with crowd behind them, colts shoulder burden of

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New Indian Express: New India rising: with crowd behind them, colts shoulder burden of expectations

LUCKNOW: Murde ketaboot mein itne keel gaadh do ki woh uth na sake (just hammer as many nails as possible so that the corpse does not come out of the coffin).”

Those were the words of skipper Harjeet Singh after India’s match against England in the group stages. The context of the comment was how India allowed England a sniff after leading 5-1 (the encounter finished 5-3).

In a broader narrative, that quote is telling because the hosts have themselves been the ultimate escapologists. Lots of times they were frustrated — the Spain match especially, when the Iberians parked a bus in front of goal — but they found a way.

The other impressing thing is Indian teams of past have crumbled under the weight of expectations. This reincarnation feeds off it. Players have turned towards the capacity crowd to give them a lift. The energy on the field is immediately upped and positive interaction between the crowd and the players has acted as their Bellerophon the last 10 days.

There’s also an unmistakable air of defiance that has surrounded the Indians. Given most of the boys are from Punjab, hockey has been a daily activity even before they learned to walk. However, not many have had it the easy way. Forward Armaan Qureshi has had to sell meat in his father’s chicken shop in Gwalior. Seven — Ajit Pandey, Harmanpreet Singh, Harjeet, Sumit Kumar, Vikas Dahiya, Varun Kumar and Krishan B Pathak — of the 18 are sons of drivers. Apart from being gifted athletes, there is one common strand that binds them. A humble background.

Coach Harendra Singh, who has talked about stepping down once this tournament is over, touched on that after the side’s training session on Saturday. “Because they are from a very similar background, there is mutual understanding among all of them. That means they are all hungry to achieve something. That makes my job that bit easier.”

Throw in the desire to do well for themselves and it has had a profound impact on mental strength, something they actively trained for in Bengaluru. “We have always been accused of choking and I have prepared the team keeping that in mind. I have prepared them both mentally as well as physically,” Harendra, who was the coach during the 2005 Junior World Cup, said.

Manager Roelant Oltmans sang the same tunes. “Now it’s time to play the perfect game on Sunday.” He tweaked his statement slightly later on — in that there is no such thing as a perfect game. Both the elder statesmen are already ‘very proud of the team’. At the start of the bash, they would have said thank you if you had offered them second place. But having come this far, they want to complete the job.

Oltmans summed up the mood in the camp perfectly with this one line. “Winning is the only thing that matters at this stage.”