India thrash Pakistan 7-4 to reach hockey semifinals
Shashank Shekhar
NEW DELHI: One preliminary group game of hockey brought the Commonwealth Games alive on Sunday at the National Stadium. If sports is all about unadulterated joy, high emotion and great drama, then the India- Pakistan match provided all of it and more as 30,000 fans experienced salvation.
After all, you don’t see Rahul Gandhi jumping for joy too often. On this day, he could not help but go with the flow as the stadium swayed to the tune of ‘Chak De, India’. Rahul, sitting by Sonia Gandhi’s side, cheered like a young, exuberant fan every time India found the net.
And they found it as many as seven times. In an incredibly high-octane, thrill-a-minute match, India, in a must-win situation, bamboozled Pakistan 7-4 to make the semifinals. While this equalled the record of the most goals India have ever scored against Pakistan in a match, it also continued the trend of their recent domination over the arch-rivals.
Barring small periods here and there, India played with great purpose and control against a team which could not withstand the pressure of 11 men on the field and thousands off it. That the Pakistani team had several newcomers helped the hosts who took full advantage.
Taking the game by the scruff of the neck, India all but settled the issue by the 20th minute by going 4-0 up. Sandeep Singh converted two penalty corners to make it 2-0 before finding Shivendra Singh in the ‘D’ with a beautiful pass which he coolly slotted home. And even before the celebratory roar had subsided, the fourth goal was added when Sarawanjit Singh angled it in after a Sandeep PC hit was blocked by the defence.
The crowd had by then gone hoarse with the constant cheering and shouting. The situation calmed down a bit when Pakistan got two back as India went off the boil in the last minutes of the first half.
Half-time at 4-2, Pakistan still had a chance, especially as they needed only a draw to advance. Those aspirations were mowed down when Danish Mujtaba reacted sharply to score off a PC rebound and Dharamvir Singh scored a mercurial field goal off a Shivendra pass to make in 6-2 by the 45th minute. All that Pakistan could now do was to scrounge for respectability. They did that with two goals but in between, Shivendra got his second to complete a rather fulsome scoreline.