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The Indian hockey team ended their FIH Hockey World Cup 2023 campaign with a comfortable 5-2 win over South Africa on Saturday, 28 January. This victory in the classification match means that the home team would finish the tournament in ninth position.
Though the Indian hockey team’s performance was far from perfect and showed shortcomings in the attacking department, they weren’t troubled much. The South African side tried hard but didn’t have the firepower to overcome the quality of their opponents.
The star of the match for India was their forward Abhishek. He scored the first goal, provided an assist for the third, and also played a part in the fourth.
Fast but not furious action from the Indian hockey team
India played the first half of the match at a frantic pace. Of course, this meant some errors and occasionally, losing possession. But overall, they dominated the proceedings and ensured that the South Africans spent almost the entire 30 minutes defending.
The first goal came as early as the fifth minute. It was the result of a brilliant pass from midfield by Nilakanta Sharma, almost from the centre-line, to Abhishek inside the circle. The Indian forward didn’t have much space, but he managed to execute a powerful shot and beat the goalkeeper.
The Indian hockey team continued to play in an ultra-aggressive manner for the rest of the first half. They attacked every South African player who got the ball and managed to extract a lot of turnovers.
Abhishek was playing the leading part for India. Akashdeep Singh and Mandeep Singh were pushed to a supporting role. Lalit Kumar Upadhyay too didn’t feature as prominently. In the midfield, it was Nilakanta who was doing major work.
The relentless pressure of India led to their second goal, in the 12th minute. Harmanpreet Singh converted a penalty corner into a goal with a powerful drag-flick. The goalkeeper managed to get a touch but the ball still went through.
Though South Africa didn’t have much to show for their efforts in the first half, one player stood out. It was Nqobile Ntuli, the forward who troubled India whenever he got the ball in their half. His speed and skill allowed him to break into the circle and give some nervous moments to the Indian defense. However, he had no support to work with.
South Africa improve but not enough to trouble the Indian hockey team
The second half saw the South Africans keeping more possession and making more incursions into the Indian circle. The Indian team, though, was able to defend well and ensure that their opponents didn’t keep the pressure on for a sustained period.
However, the Indians were found severely lacking in their attacking quality. It seemed the team decided to play at a high pace but couldn’t complement that with good link-up play and better structure. The result was that most of India’s forward moves came to nothing and South Africa kept the scoreboard from moving for quite some time.
The African side also managed to earn two penalty corners early in the third quarter. Nothing came of it though.
The Indian hockey team finally managed to score another goal in the last minute of the third quarter. Abhishek gave a good cross from the right-hand side of the circle. The goalkeeper could only partially stop it as the ball went through and Shamsher Singh put it into the circle.
Abhishek, in fact, was clearly the Indian hockey team’s best attacker and was most effective in creating opportunities. Unfortunately, for him, he wasn’t getting any support. Other forwards just weren't able to position themselves well enough to complement their teammates.
Abhishek was again in action for India’s fourth goal. He wrestled the ball away from two South African defenders on the right-hand side of the circle and, luckily this time, had Jarmanpreet Singh close to him.
He gave the ball to Jarmanpreet who swept it across toward the front of the goal. Akashdeep Singh was one of many players crowding tthearea and he managed to get a touch that got the ball in. This put the Indian hockey team 4-0 ahead in the 49th minute.
However, South Africa opened their account immediately after. In the same minute, an overhead pass landed inside the Indian circle and was collected by Samkelo Mvimbi. India was very unlucky as the ambiguous rules regarding the tackling of players receiving overhead passes prevented them from coming close to Mvimbi. As a result, he had a lot of space to smash the ball from the right-hand side, past the goalkeeper, into the goal.
Apart from this setback, the game continued in a similar vein to before for the next 10 minutes. In the penultimate minute of the game, Akashdeep got into the circle but because of a defender impeding him, could only weakly hit a bouncing ball toward the goal. Luckily for the Indian hockey team, the goalkeeper pushed it in front of him without much power and Sukhjeet Singh charged in to push it across the goal line.
There was another blip left in the game for India as a brilliant run from Mustaphaa Cassiem through midfield culminated in him getting stick-checked by PR Sreejesh inside the circle. This led to a penalty stroke which Cassiem easily converted. The match, as a result, ended with a 5-2 scoreline.
