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Call it what you may, but there is little doubt that the Indian men’s hockey team is fast-forwarding the process of putting an ‘end’ of being subjected to heavy, morale-pounding, ignominious defeats on the hockey pitch by top teams, especially world champions Australia.
Why specifically Australia? It’s because they are one side that have consistently thrashed India over the years. The 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games men’s hockey final was an embarrassment of the highest kind for Indian hockey as Australia – the 2010 World Cup winners – pounded us 8-0 – such a heavy defeat coming in front of our home crowd and that too in a gold medal play-off was an extremely bitter pill to swallow.
Remember the Tri-Nation Tourney (Pakistan was the third team) held in Busselton, Australia in October 2011 when India were humiliated by Australia 3-8. One vividly remembers the 2012 Champions Trophy where Australia pipped India by 3-0, but could have won by at least dozen goals had it not for some magnificent goalkeeping by PR Sreejesh in Melbourne. It was a contest of one-way traffic as the Aussies kept probing the Indian citadel and Sreejesh nullifying them to ensure India avoided a heavy loss.
The 2013 Hockey World League Semifinals held in Rotterdam, Netherlands saw Australia crush India 5-1 – again the fast-paced attacking game of the Kookaburras catching the Indian unawares, literally leaving them resigned to their fate. How about the Hockey World League Final Round Event held in New Delhi in January 2014? Well, in this game, India did take a 2-0 lead (one was an own goal by Australia), before Australia dominated the next fifty minutes of play to demolish us 7-2, continuing the sequence of big wins.
The scenario was such that avoiding a heavy defeat became the main focus point for the Indian team, although they always strived for a win. The signs of India beginning to look competitive against Australia were seen in the 2014 World Cup, where India lost 0-4. The 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games saw India really put Australia up for fight in the league phase, losing narrowly 2-4 but was sapped of energy in the final which they lost 0-4 a day after beating New Zealand 3-2 in a high-voltage semifinal tie.
India were, of course, outclassed 0-4 in the first hockey Test in Perth, and since then there has no looking back. India won the next three Tests 2-1, 1-0 and 3-0 to close out a fabulous Test series win and notched up their fourth win on the trot in Sultan Azlan Shah Cup with an exciting 4-2 win riding on a hat-trick by Nikkin Thimmaiah.
Four straight wins against the world champions does give you the comfort to think gone are those ‘ridiculously one-sides games’ days. This Indian team may be guilty of being inconsistent, but they have shown in the past six months that they can compete against the world’s best.
