BHUBANESWAR: As the clock neared 60 minutes, the evening air gathered a bit of nip. On the hockey pitch, the temperature read a lot different. It kept soaring, until the sweat-soaked blue shirts could put brakes on their sprints and shake hands with their opponents in green. India's 'Cup of Hope', the 2018 Men's Hockey World Cup, has begun on a five-star note. It's India 5 - South Africa nil.
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The twinkle feet of Akashdeep Singh, India's new link-man, led a performance that will raise expectations from Harendra Singh's boys. For 60 minutes on Wednesday, they promised to not let India down.
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For the record books, Simranjeet Singh's double strike in the 43rd and 46th minute swelled India's final tally, after Mandeep Singh drew first blood in the 10th minute and Akashdeep doubled it in the 12th. Lalit Upadhyay scored the fourth goal of the day in the 45th.
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It was a tricky game to start with. South Africa were an unknown commodity -- not regular in international hockey over the last few years and India hadn't faced them since the 2014 Commonwealth Games (CWG). And there were 15,000 cheering fans at the Kalinga Stadium, almost demanding a win.
Harendra admitted that anxiety.
"Anxiety that every one carries (before a big tournament), it made us cautious a little (at the start). But we regrouped soon, thanks to Mandeep who calmed nerves with his goal," the coach said.
But it didn't make any difference to a fan's eye. India registered their biggest win over South Africa, improving upon the 5-2 they registered in CWG four years ago.
On the penalty-corner counter, India created five of them and converted two. The first was when Harmanpreet Singh's drag-flick was palm-stopped by the South African goalkeeper Rassie Pieterse, but Mandeep was perfectly placed to tap in the rebound.
Simranjeet scored off India's fourth PC. It was a lucky goal in a way that there was some confusion at the top of the circle as India attempted a variation. A wide-awake Simranjeet latched onto the common ball to score his second goal of the match.
"We will go back in the meeting room (to discuss) what led to that. But I am happy the boys recovered and even scored," said Harendra.
Akashdeep's newfound off-the-ball running once again found him a space, albeit one-part lucky, when a long ball from Varun found Simranjeet's stick in the South African circle. But he couldn't control it, only to see Akashdeep at the end of the deflection to score.
The second quarter remained goal-less. But India were lucky not to concede. The 25th minute saw the South Africans taking back-to-back aims at India's goal, but PR Sreejesh was in the way on both the occasions.
The plays of the day arrived in the third quarter, although India's performance bar dropped a little overall during those 15 minutes.
One of Mandeep's many overlapping runs on the new blue turf finally resulted in a goal in the 43rd minute of play. Running in with the ball from the left, almost carrying it for a split second, Mandeep chose the most appropriate time to minus it back to Simranjeet, who added another cushion to the scoreline.
Another moment of brilliance from Akashdeep two minutes later saw his long-ball finding pin-point accuracy to reach Lalit. He moved well to avoid the converging defender and deflect it into the South African goal.
The Canadians were disappointed for a reason. Had they scored off one of those opportunities in the second quarter, it could have forced India to play differently.
"When we were 2-0 down, Sreejesh made a very nice save. Had that gone in for 2-1, the game would have changed. We missed and they made it three at the other end.
"We could have put India under a lot of pressure. That was the biggest difference between the two teams. India took their chances really well, we didn't," coach Mark Hopkins said to sum up the match for his side.
A four-day gap now follows before India take on Belgium on December 2. The Red Lions survived a scare in the tournament opener on Wednesday, in which they edged Canada 2-1 to be second behind India in Pool C.
Source : timesofindia[dot]indiatimes[dot]com
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