Pakistan down depleted India

If at all there was any “strategy” by either team, then there was little sign of it. In fact, while the Pakistanis, as was to be expected, depended on their patented counter-attacks, the Indians seem to struggle get the final passes right and wasted several chances on either side of the interval.

There was an element of perfectibility about the Indian moves which the Pakistani deep defence read well enough to putup a solid wall. Though a couple of the Indian forwards, particularly Mukesh Kumar and Harbhajan Singh, did manage to breach the defence, the finish was so woeful that the Pakistani goalkeeper Ahmed Alam must have felt like a spectator.

It was quite evident that the Indians were without a support play-maker who could even match Sabu Varkey in ball distribution. The absence of pivot Thirumal Valavan (injured left hand) and the fact that regular Md Riaz is nowhere close to full recovery from a leg injury, put so much more pressure on Sabu. The Pakistanis had Sabu’s number on most occasions and the wily inside-right could make his play only fleetingly. His substitution, then, was no surprise.

India’s cup of woe overflowed as winger Mukesh Kumar, despite switching positions and half-back Baljit Singh Saini hardly measured up to the challenge while centre-half Anwar Khan worked tirelessly trying to hold the game together.

To make matters worse, India’s best bet in the series the deep defence manned by DilipTirkey and Lazarus Barla did not look quite the part today. Tirkey, in fact, suffered a cut on the chin early in the game, and it seemed to have affected him although he manfully came back after treatment.In the event, the Pakistanis, though on the defensive for much of the first-half, came through unscathed and made their play after the change of ends.

For Pakistan, wing-half Md Usman, despite beaten on a couple of times by Gavin Ferreira, had an outstanding game, as did the deep defenders. Tahir Zaman, as usual, kept tabs in the mid-field, while Shahbaz Ahmed, virtually playing from memory, still kept the Indian defence on its toes with a series of trademark passes, one of which led to the first goal.

In fact, it was Tirkey’s rather ambitious long hit that triggered a lightning counter-attack and the flowing move culminated with Abdullah slamming home from the top of the circle after goalkeeper Subbaiah had parried a Shahbaz attempt from close. Abdullah’s shot got deflected off a lunging Saini’s stickand the change of direction totally wrong-footed Subbaiah, who otherwise, brought off a couple of good saves.

Soon, another counter saw Zaman free on top of the circle as he packed off a return ball from Abdullah. The second Pakistani goal virtually killed the Indian challenge, and the huge crowd began to disperse, sensing the defeat.

The teams

Pakistan: Ahmed Alam; Ali Raza, Md Usman, Imran Yousaf, Waseem Ahmed, Rahim Khan, Kamran Ashraf, Babar Abdullah, Tariq Imran, Md Sarwar and Md Khalid. Substitutes: Naveed Alam, Tahir Zaman, Shahbaz Ahmed, Md Qasim and Sohail Abbas.

India: A B Subbaiah; Dilip Tirkey, Lazarus Barla, Baljit Singh Saini, Anwar Khan, Ramandeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar (captain), Sabu Varkey, Harbhajan Singh, Gavin Ferreira and Rajesh Chauhan. Substitutes: Jagadish Ponnappa, Dinesh Naik, Senthil, Md Riaz and Brojen Singh.

Umpires: Raymond O’Connor (Ireland) and Christian Stieberg (Germany).