India beat England to reach hockey final

Shashank Shekhar

NEW DELHI: Another evening of passion, fervour and drama at the National Stadium saw India enter the final of the CWG men’s hockey competition on Tuesday. The Indian team couldn’t have let thousands of wildly cheering fans down. And they couldn’t have, after displaying extraordinary spirit and class, let themselves down. They did not and everyone left the grand arena soul contended, with the desire to return on Thursday, for the final against Australia.

The victory over European champions England, who had beaten India at this venue during the 2010 World Cup early this year, was achieved in a penalty shootout but not before the hosts came back from 1-3 down in a stirring fightback. Such was the ferocity of their counterpunch that India could have wrapped it up in regulation period. They dominated play in the final quarter of the game but missed a few chances and English goalkeeper James Fair saved some.

In extra time too, India looked more likely to score but just couldn’t. In the shootout, it was the turn of Indian custodian Bharat Chetri to wear the hero’s mantle. He made a brilliant, diving save off Glenn Kirkham’s flick, England’s third, to open the victory vista. After Arjun Halappa scored off the fourth stroke, it was left to Shivendra Singh to push India into the final of a major event after a long, long time. The ace forward coolly found the net to send the stadium into raptures as his mates ran into each other’s arms and a stunned English team tried in vain to hide its disappointment.

More than the victory, though, it was the manner in which it was achieved that was praiseworthy. India have a history of cracking under pressure as well as flagging in the final minutes. On Tuesday, they not only raised their game when the crunch came, they also finished much more strongly than a very fit English side.

Final hurdle: The Aussies

The Australian juggernaut rolled into the final of the men’s hockey competition at the Commonwealth Games with a 6-2 dismantling of New Zealand. The Kiwis fought gamely and even gave some anxious moments to the world champions, but they didn’t have the ammo to deliver the telling blows.

The Aussies just weathered the little storms to ultimately stamp their authority on the game. After New Zealand gave their defence some early jitters, Australia came into their own and pumped in three goals in a six-minute spell and the match was as good as over. The second half saw the Kiwis rally with two goals but they were mere aberrations in Australia’s march towards what will be their fourth straight CWG gold.

Aussie veteran Luke Doerner gave credit to their trans-Tasman rivals. “They were tough today. The scoreline flatters us a bit.”

Pakistan finish sixth

Pakistan were done in by Justin Reid-Ross’ ‘golden goal’ as South Africa won the classification match 3-2 to finish fifth. Pakistan were leading 2-0 with just about 15 minutes to go but let South Africa come back to restore parity and take the contest to extra-time. Pakistan played the last 12 minutes with just 10 men after Muhammad Irfan was shown the red card.