MONDAY, July 9, 2001:
The Indian team had the push back and by playing the European style of keeping possession dominated the opening few minutes of play only losing possession through long inaccurate passes, but recovering the ball and taking the game back to the Scots. First blood in the Penalty corner stakes went to Scotland when a fumbled pass allowed them to snatch the ball and make a break into the circle where a silly defensive mistake saw the Penalty Corner given. An abysmal push out seen more often on schools playing fields than the International area saw India through this crisis and the pressure was taken back to the Scottish end of the pitch.

Again a poor 16 yard (or should I say 14 metre) push out allow India to steal the ball make their way towards the back of the circle and deliver a backward pass onto the penalty spot where a grateful Gagan Ajit Singh accepted the present and dispatch the ball with clinical efficiency into the back of the net in the 16th minute.

This raised the frustrations of the Scots and a little bit of physical play started to creep into the game. English umpire Tony Kelleher was quickly onto it though and taking time, gave a passable impression of a chicken to indicate to players to keep their elbows to themselves. A couple of clumsy tackles followed by loud blasts left the players in no doubt he meant business and the physical play dropped out of the game.

A breakaway by the Scots saw them manage to penetrate the Indian circle and a backwards pass to nowhere found an Indian defender’s foot and another Penalty Corner to the Scots. An early break saw a re-award before anything could happen and on the re-take the legendary Indian speed saw the shot smothered at the top of the circle by the first wave of defenders and again the pressure was taken back to the Scots.

Two minutes before the break saw India with a free hit two yards outside the circle and with the usual jostling for position the elbows came out again and umpire Kelleher stopped time to give a green card to Radhi Krishnan and Phil Webster of Scotland. In my opinion this doesn’t happen often enough and it was nice to see an umpire clamping down on it to stop this kind of play from ruining a good game of hockey. When time restarted the ball was smashed directly at the goal and the Scottish keeper dropped to the ground to prevent slight deflections from going in, but being surrounded by 3 Indian players, it was Prabjoth Singh who picked up the rebound and worked the ball quickly round the prone keeper and into the net to Increase India’s lead to the half time score of 2 – 0.

The first half definitely belonged to India with them completely dominating the game and Scotland only rarely being able to break out of their half. When they did the Indian defence quickly re-grouped and drove them back. The Scottish defence on the other hand played well to deny India too many scoring opportunities, but they were just unable to break through the midfield stranglehold that India enjoyed to give their forwards a chance.

Fifty two seconds into the second half saw the stick wizardry of India evident driving then into the Scot’s circle and a desperation tackle gave India their first Penalty Corner. The resulting drag flick had the Scottish keeper lunging desperately to his left only to see the ball flash past his outstretched limbs and just fly wide of the goal. 3 minutes later it was Scotland’s turn to miss with a reverse stick sweep at the top of the circle beating both the keeper and the goal.

In the 9th minute of the second half the Indian inside right broke into the circle and took a stinging shot at goal that was well saved by the keeper, but the rebound went right back for a second bite at the pie and only the most remarkable reflex save kept the ball out. Assistant coach CR Kumar was heard to commiserate with a “bad luck”. A minute later it was Baljit Singh Saini’s turn to show off his reverse stick sweep skills and India was again denied by superb bit of keeping

This appeared to rejuvenate the Scots and they upped the tempo of their play significantly to take the game back to the Indians. They enjoyed a long period of dominance. Only when the Scots slowed their game down again did India take charge once more and again the forwards were thwarted by some excellent goal keeping.

A clumsy tackle by Prabjoth Singh saw him get an official warning in the 54th minute of the game and India then settled down to regain and retain possession. Baljit Singh Saini nearly hit one of hit own players on the head with a reverse stick sweep that just missed the goal and the pressure was eventually rewarded with a Penalty Corner. The shot was saved and the rebound slipped to the injector and put into the back of the net. Unfortunately the Umpire adjudged a 3rd party obstruction on the keeper and denied India the goal. Only on slow motion replay does it become apparent it was a