Off to London
M.S. Unnikrishnan
Drag-flick exponent Sandeep Singh played the star role, knocking in five goals, to record his third hat-trick of the tournament, as India pummelled France 8-1 in the title clash of the Olympic Qualifying Men’s Hockey Tournament at the Dhyan Chand National Stadium here tonight, to book a berth for the London Olympics 2012. India had rode on Sandeep’s penalty corner conversions in all the previous matches, and he lived up to the image of a drag-flicker with a deadly touch, as he scored five goals, all off penalty corners, to take his total tally in the tournament to 16. He also got the man of the match award, but it was Sardar Singh, captain for the day, and who played stellar hockey throughout, who walked away with the man of the tournament award. Hockey India and Lalit Hotel announced Rs 1 lakh each to the players for their brilliant display.
In fact, India converted six of their seven penalty corners today, as V.R.Raghunath too made no mistake with the seventh when Sandeep was benched, and this win was one better than their 6-2 triumph against France in the league stage. After playing scrappy hockey for the first 15 minutes when Sandeep’s first penalty corner scoop was padded away by French keeper Mathias Dierckens in the third minute, and many of their moves fizzled out outside and inside the dee, India took the lead in the 16th mintue.
Manpreet Singh sent a perfect pass from the top of the semi-circle, and Birendra Lakra trapped it before quickly whacking it high into the goal (1-0). Three minutes later, Sandeep Singh started his goal-hunt with a perfect scoop off the second penalty corner to put India 2-0 ahead. But France created some flutter with a goal against the run of the play, which stunned the hosts. Sebastian Jean-Jean dashed in and put the ball in charge of Simon Martin Brisac, who shot in on the run, to narrow the lead (1-2). But Sandeep did a perfect job with the third penalty corner as well, to widen India’s lead to 3-1 at half time.
Three minutes into the second half, Sandeep once again showed his drag-flicker skills to score off the fourth penalty corner, and then a Danish Mujtaba-Tushar Khandekar-S.V.Sunil passing bout ended in the last-named finding the mark for the fifth goal. Sandeep then converted the fifth and sixth penalty corners to make it 7-1 while Raghunath slotted home off the seventh PC, when Sandeep was benched, to complete the miserable run of France.
Not that the visitors were mere doormats for the hosts to run over, as they had their share of chances too, when they forced four penalty corners in a row midway through the second session – overall they had six – but the Indian defence, particularly custodian P.R. Sreejesh, played true to baulk the French attempts. Once when Sreejesh was beaten, Ignace Tirkey saved from the goal-line to deny the visitors another goal.
India had missed the Olympic bus to Beijing 2008, for the first time-ever in the history of Indian hockey, but today, the hosts redeemed their lost prestige by getting back into the Olympic fold, with an authoritative victory, which sent the packed stands into a frenzy.
But they had not begun the match very assuredly. Spraying mis-passes galore in the first few minutes and were even unable to properly trap the ball. With a near-full house rooting for them the Indian team were under palpable tension, but once Sandeep Singh got into his scoring act, there was no looking back for the hosts, barring that lone goal by France.