India soar past Pakistan

Right through the build-up to this World Cup, the Indian team had battled a series of controversies. On Sunday, they took on old foes Pakistan on the field — under tremendous pressure from outside — and came out victorious, by a mile.

As the hosts walked out onto the new turf at the National Stadium in their tournament opener late in the evening to the tune of the national anthem, it was not just a crowd of Indian supporters screaming ‘jaya hai’ that had their hopes from the XI on the field. A lot had been said about the future of Indian hockey, the future of this team and the World Cup being the last chance to revive it. Follwing all that, this was not a result anyone expected; except, perhaps, the players. A 4-1 win is, after all, India’s biggest ever margin over Pakistan in a World Cup and the scoreline was a fair reflection of the dominance this time.

This was an Indian team playing with a difference: there were no flashy dribbles, no desire to express skilled stickwork, no holding on to the ball for an extra second. It was fast hockey, clean and simple, but with enough traces of style and panache that has been synonymous with Asian teams. This was a style of play not seen in Indian hockey. The man-to-man marking was tight, so much so that Rehan Butt — India’s nemesis for long and the man who began his rise to stardom with two goals against India — was completely neutralised by Bharat Chikara.

“India definitely played better than us,” Pakistan coach Shahid Ali Khan said. “India played a completely different style and brand of hockey than what we saw in Salta (during the Champions Challenge in December),” said Butt.

Even in fitness, India were the better side. Often accused of being lethargic on the field and running out of stamina in the final moments, they outran their opponents on Sunday. The rolling substitutions were used to the hilt and the use of the flanks was especially impressive.

For India, there were many heroes. It was a transformed Prabhjot Singh upfront, releasing his team mates early, as well as scoring the crucial third goal in the opening minutes of the second half. There was Shivendra Singh, who proved his credentials inside the circle with a well-placed split-second goal off a rebound in the 25th minute to open the scoring. Sandeep Singh, meanwhile, converted both the penalty corners he took to put the game beyond Pakistan.

But the player who made more of a difference than anyone else was one who, not too long ago, was discarded as being too old and too slow for modern hockey. Vikram Pillay, the soft-spoken Khirki man was the fulcrum around whom the team’s game revolved, winning the battle of veterans in the midfield against Waseem Ahmed. He marshalled the centre of the field, ran up inside the circle to support the forwards and ran down all the way back to add muscle to the defence.

Asked if neutralising Butt and Waseem was the key, coach Jose Brasa said: “We realised that the Pakistan team revolved mainly around a few players. If they are taken out, it would be our game,” he said.

Pakistan captain Zeeshan Ashraf admitted that India were the better team, but added that they were unlucky. “Two of Sohail Abbas’s hits came off the crossbar, otherwise things may have been different. But we are still not out and if we do well in our remaining matches, we can still reach the semi-finals,” he said.