In Delhi, the joy of hockey’s return tempered by defeat to Germany
The result wasn’t what the fans had turned up for as an off-colour India were outplayed at the iconic Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium
The giant screen read 0-2 at the end of 60 minutes, clearly indicating that the Indian men’s hockey team had lost to Germany in the first of the two Tests here on Wednesday. But the post-match scenes didn’t depict that.
Despite the heat and humidity of the October afternoon, the 9,000-odd crowd went berserk as the Indian players took a lap of the ground to acknowledge the support as international hockey returned to the iconic Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium after a gap of nine-and-a-half years.
The craze to meet India skipper and Paris Olympics top-scorer Harmanpreet Singh was apparent as some fans vaulted over the 12 feet tall steel fence, not caring about their safety, to meet the famous drag-flicker. They were immediately taken out by security but not before they had hugged or touched Harmanpreet’s feet.
“This is the effect of the bronze medals at the last two Olympics. Even my eight-year-old daughter Roohani followed India’s matches in Paris, so I wanted her to see a live hockey match inside a stadium,” said Gurkie Mann, who has travelled from Bathinda to watch the Test series.
“My father used to take me to hockey matches. It is because of my daughter I am seeing a live match for the first time since 2008,” added Mann, who was lucky to meet members of the Indian team at the hotel.
Crowds had started queuing up outside the venue even before the gates had opened despite the match being held during working hours of a weekday, with many searching for merchandise.
But the result wasn’t what the fans had turned up for as an off-colour India were outplayed. The Craig Fulton-coached side spent almost a month in felicitations post the bronze medal in Paris following which they won the Asian Champions Trophy in China last month.
Following a short break, they returned to camp in Bengaluru, but their practice has been intermittent due to incessant rainfall in Karnataka. In addition, vice-captain Hardik Singh, drag-flicker Jugraj Singh, Uttam Singh, Bobby Singh Dhami are injured while Lalit Kumar Upadhyay has taken paternity leave.
They have been replaced by two debutants – Rajinder Singh and Aditya Lalage – while some others are making a comeback, slightly disturbing the rhythm of the team. “Yes, we were a bit off-colour today,” said former India skipper Manpreet Singh.
Germany, on the other hand, looked a much smoother and determined unit despite being the visiting team. Only five of the 16 players, who had won silver in Paris, have flown in for the bilateral series as the team is full of youngsters, including three debutants, who have recently graduated to the senior level.
But significantly, the standard of the German juniors is quite high too. They won the Junior World Cup last year and are in the middle of their season, playing regularly in Europe and also at their clubs, which is hitting peak time before the Christmas break. But Fulton offered no excuse, visibly disappointed at India’s loss.
“No excuse for that. Obviously, it’s the back end of a long season, but we’re at home while they’ve flown in. We weren’t on the mark today,” said Fulton.
Germany stunned the crowd when debutant Henrik Mertgens put the visitors ahead in the fourth minute as they dominated the first quarter. The cohesiveness of the reigning world champions forced India to go compact in defence.
But the two-minute break helped the hosts as a much more attacking India turned up in the second quarter, earning five penalty corners (PC) and a stroke in addition to a short corner in the first quarter. It was a pre-decided plan to try out support drag-flickers Sanjay and Varun Kumar as Harmanpreet, the top scorer of Paris Olympics, took only three of India’s eight PC attempts.
But while Sanjay failed miserably, Varun couldn’t go past the German rushers, who were fast enough to counter India’s variations. “They need an opportunity but unfortunately, it didn’t happen for Varun. It was set up on a plate for Sanjay but yeah, it’s just one of those things,” said Fulton.
This gave Germany a chance to double the lead in the dying seconds of the first half as skipper Lukas Windfeder converted from their first PC.
The third quarter was slightly more even as India got more PC chances, but the German defence worked as well as their offence, thwarting attempts made by India’s forwards.
Only two matches old, Germany decided to try out young goalkeeper Joshua Onyekwue instead of the experienced Jean-Paul Danneburg, but the 21-year-old did a splendid job, including an acrobatic defence to deny Harmanpreet a penalty stroke goal.