CHENNAI : A Man in a yellow shirt was animatedly screaming at the 11 Indian players in front of him. "Mela va, mela va (come up, come up)," he repeated his mantra a lot of times. What he was suggesting was India play an attacking brand of hockey, eschew patient building of play in the back and recycling possession in midfield for a pass and move style. He may well have been speaking on behalf of the capacity crowd at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium on Wednesday.
It's fair to say the turnout has been lukewarm but an India vs Pakistan (in hockey and irrespective of the recent one-sidedness of this rivalry) match is, as they say, an India vs Pakistan match, boss. On Wednesday? It was standing room for the many who had checked in late. Even then, they watched Tamil Nadu CM, MK Stalin, and cricketer, R Ashwin meet the two teams ahead of pushback.
Less than 90 seconds after pushback, the Green Shirts were wheeling away in delight. A cross from the left hand channel had evaded Indian sticks and Abdul Shahid helped it past Krishan Pathak. India appealed and the umpire upheld it for 'dangerous play' and gave Pakistan a penalty corner. It wasn't dangerous play, at least that was the view held by coach, Muhammad Saqlain. At half-time, he lashed out at the umpiring, saying it ought to be better at this level. By half-time, though, the match was as good as over as the hosts, through two Harmanpreet Singh penalty corners, were two goals ahead. An hour post the restart, the scoreline 4-0 wasn't a surprise.
Ever since Pakistan's acrimonious 4-3 win over India in the semifinals of the 2014 edition of the Champions Trophy, these two sides have not been equals. They have traversed opposite trajectories and the match, in a microcosm, showed why. India, to put it bluntly, have better players, better game awareness and can rely on big-game experience. Pakistan, who needed to avoid defeat to stay in contention of reaching the semifinals, have a youngish team and are ranked No. 16 in the world.
But as has been a major theme of this tournament, the visitors equipped themselves well. In fact, they did the majority of the running in the first stanza and it took the hosts, who will face Japan for a place in Saturday's final, considerable time to grow into the match.
What really helped them gain a foothold in the match was the fact that they went away from their recent style of being patient. They were all blood and thunder here — aided and abetted by a Pakistan midfield who were waving them along — opting to counter, something that goes against Craig Fulton's stylistic desires, rather than be more measured in their approach play. It had a multi-pronged effect; the crowd was more involved than in any of the earlier games and the Indian midfield frequently overran their Pakistani counterparts.
On the stroke of the first quarter, India earned a penalty corner (replays suggested it perhaps shouldn't have stood) and Harmanpreet Singh stepped up to rifle the shot past Akmal Hussain. An expectant crowd finally had its release and India started to play with the handbrake off in the second stanza. Even though they were indulging in a full-court press, what they were doing here was the verticality that was so reminiscent of Indian hockey under Graham Reid.
Harmanpreet made it two from the top of the D seven minutes before half-time. Jugraj Singh ensured that India would finish the league stage as table-toppers with a third goal, also from a penalty corner. Akashdeep Singh, who shanked one earlier in the evening when it was easier to score, added the gloss on a perfect evening in the fourth quarter.
