Bravery of two young umpires, misadventure of an intimidating coach, passionate crowd, and mature game by at least by one rival marked the off track Women’s Nationals final at New Delhi on 11th July.

In a country where much adulated men umpires hesitate to flash cards in domestic circuit and thus allow the rough and rogue players get away with their acts of open and premediated violence, Shamshad Begum and Anupama – who made their international umpiring career last year — who were rightly selected to officiate in the nail baiting Nationals finals between Railways and Haryana, won the hearts of seasoned observers.

They perhaps knew the finals will be intensely fought and tempers will fly (in fact it was). That why it seemed they tried to control the match ab intio: the two yellow cards that the formidable Railways got was the proof of their mindset. Captain Sumrai’s second green appeared too harsh, and as he got already one, turned into yellow. Before this, winger Saba Anjum got the wrath of Anupama as Saba’ s stick hits a Haryana player standing behind her and thus a yellow card for the offender.

Despite the umpires strict message, the Haryana girls, who seems to be puppets on the string of coach Baldev Singh, resorted to open body tackle, not often seen in women’s hockey, in the second half. Markers of wingers Saba and Mamta were too unsportmanlike. Expectedly, both got yellow cards, almost simultaneously, leaving just nine players on the field. It is at that juncture, the Railways got a stroke in their favour.

9 out of 10 penalty stroke awarded in domestic hockey are disputed. So also this one. But making use of crowd’s mood, Baldev halted the match for almost 15 minutes and one of the Haryana players threw the stick in a manner distasteful to say the least. Everything seemed afire and on wrong foot, but the poor Railways who had their top bosses watching the match from the pavilion, despite good mature game were on wrong foot, yielding to intimidation.

For a while midway through the second half, it appeared one is not witnessing a women’s hockey match at Shivaji stadium, but bull fight at Pamplona. However, Masira Surin, every smiling medio, converted the stroke though the vocal section of the crowd was baying for Railways blood. This spurred the action, and then Haryana got a penalty corner. Sandeep Kaur, who negotiated four of the five converted, had the last laugh this time. As the scored stood 1-1, the normal play time ended. On a suggestion from Baldev Singh, Railways accepted to share the Cup. Second occasion in domestic hockey after All India Interbank tournament in Chennai was shared a decade a ago between PSB and State Bank of India.

It was Railways 20th title, but shared first time. Railway players were decidedly unhappy to share the Cup, but being the hosts showed great generosity and accomodation to the guests! Ironically, the Haryana coach felt the umpiring was international standard!