Paris: With their confidence sky high after posting a monumental win over their perennial nemesis Australia in their final pool game, a resilient India will be hoping to quell the challenge of Great Britain in their quarterfinal clash of the Paris Olympics here on Sunday.
Placed in a group of death (Pool B) that contained defending champions Belgium, heavyweights and three-time World Cup winners Australia, Rio Olympics champions Argentina, the dangerous New Zealand and Ireland, Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist India have played some spirited hockey at the historic Yves-du-Manoir Stadium to once again ignite hopes of standing atop the podium.
Right from their opening encounter against New Zealand to the last one against Australia, they were tested in all their matches but they’ve mostly found a solution like good teams do. Against New Zealand they looked like they were heading towards a draw but got a lucky penalty stroke in the final minute and skipper Harmanpreet Singh stepped up to guide them to a hard-fought 3-2 win.
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The same resilience was evident in the second game against Argentina who scored in the 22nd minute and held the Indians at bay for a larger part of the match. The attacking pieces weren’t falling together nicely for the Indians but they never gave up and kept pushing for the equaliser before earning a penalty corner right at the death. Skipper Harmanpreet stood for the challenge and converted it beautifully to send the Indian fans into raptures.
Ireland was a cakewalk as expected but even in the 1-2 defeat to reigning champions Belgium in the next match, they showed a lot of gumption. Right till the very end even when they were reduced to 10 men after Raj Kumar Pal earned a yellow card with six minutes left for a needlessly reckless challenge, they pushed hard and almost stole an equaliser at the end.
Then came the high against Australia where they defeated the Athens champions for the first time in Olympic Games in 52 years. The magnitude of the 3-2 win was not lost on the players who celebrated it wildly with Harmanpreet hailing his strikers for dishing out a near flawless show.
India will need every bit of the resilience against Britain who can be a banana skin. The Brits aren’t like fellow European heavyweights Belgium, Netherlands and Germany but what they lack in natural talent they make up for it with a solid team display. They play with good discipline, pick the moments to attack and can be very dangerous on their given day.
One area of concern for India is the lack of defensive discipline at times. While they have looked quite good going forward, showing variations in attack by switching wing play smartly, they’ve been vulnerable during the counters. Belgium cashed in on that by blasting two quick goals in the third quarter and the frustration on coach Craig Fulton’s face was visible.
One factor that will trouble the teams is the sweltering Paris summer which is continuing to be unforgiving. Both teams take the field at 10 am local time which could really test their endurance. How they cope with it could play a decisive factor.