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A journey of thousand miles begins with a single step. And Gurvinder Singh Chandi believes that India have taken that big step tonight. It always seemed a difficult match from the moment thousands of Pakistani fans flocked into the Sultan Azlan Shah stadium with flags and mini-drums being carried as well. The atmosphere was certainly an intimidating one and at the end of the day, the fans cloaked in dark green sheets were the ecstatic one.
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Goals by Umar Bhutta, Mohammad Imran and Sohail Abbas sealed a morale-boosting victory for Pakistan while India’s only goal came from a very promising player in the form of Rupinder Pal Singh. While the defeat was certainly a bitter pill to swallow, Gurvinder Singh believes that Indian Hockey were the true winners of the day.
“Obviously it was a very hard game considering the squad Pakistan brought here to Malaysia. But we certainly did well in the first half and Rupinder once again proved why he is such a great player by scoring that goal. But, the experience within the Pakistan team exposed the flaw in ours because we had a very youthful squad today.
“Sandeep Singh and the rest are not here and young talents like Diwakar , Roshan and Mandeep were all given a chance tonight. Nevertheless, Indian Hockey are the real winners. I am pretty sure that with more experience and games, the young ones in our squad are the future of Indian Hockey. That is why i regard today as a good day of hockey for India.”
India were the better teams during the opening minutes and showed more intensity in their game. Needless to say, Rupinder Pal Singh delighted the small section of Indian fans by scoring the opening goal with a powerful drag flick after 2o minutes and they deservedly took that lead into the break.
However, Pakistan came out for the second half with fire in their belly and unsurprisingly, it did not take long for them to force in the equaliser. Umar Bhutta made sure that the Pakistan fans had something to cheer about as he scored Pakistan’s first goal after some defensive mishaps from Gurbaj Singh. The goal only motivated them more as they forced India into their own half for prolonged periods of the match. And Muhammad Imran gave Pakistan the lead after converting a penalty corner before Sohail Abbas then scored the last goal that proved to be the winner for them as he slammed in home from another penalty corner.
Pakistan rarely allowed any sort of chances for India in the second half (Photos courtesy of Megat Muzzammil)
India hardly attacked the Pakistan goal during the second half as times grew more and more frustrating for Harendra Singh’s men. Nonetheless, Gurvinder admitted that they lost focus for most of the second half, whem Pakistan were literally camping in India’s half.
“We were definitely poor after the break. Something was missing from our usual play. Before the match, we decided on playing one touch hockey but while did we manage to implement in during the first half, Pakistan’s tactis put us under pressure and we had to resort to playing long balls in the second half. That was the real reason behind our ineffective showing and as a result, we couldn’t put up a fight. However, it was never a case of not trying our best. We did our best, but the experience of the Pakistanis eventually prevailed.”
The defeat has left India’s hopes of retaining the title hanging in the balance. They currently have 7 point, two behind Pakistan and Great Britain, while Australia is leading the pack with 10 points. India’s hopes now rests on the Aussies and they only stand a chance of making it into the final if Great Britain are defeated by the Australians tomorrow. Worse still, the Malaysians have to prevent Pakistan from winning on Saturday too for India to have any chance. Anyhow, Gurvinder believes that the only thing they can do is perform well against New Zealeand tomorrow and hope for the best.
“What else can we do? We have to win the game against New Zealand tomorrow. We’ll hope for the Australians to beat Britain but even if Britain do win, we will still go into the New Zealand game with high spirits. There’s nothing to be disappointed about. We have proven our credentials in this edition of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup. So, let’s hope for the best.”
