Pakistan undone by strategic marking

On Wednesday, though the Mayor Radhakrishnan stadium was filled if not to capacity, the crowd involvement was conspicuously missing. The passion stayed put in the heart. AS Bawa, the former Olympic/World Cup umpire, said: 8220;After the thrashing in Bhopal and Hyderabad, the crowd probably expected the same here. Yes, there was something missing.8221;

It was to be expected that this outing would be more about strategy than skills, and at the end of the day, it separated India from Pakistan. Desperate for a win, after three successivedefeats in the nine-Test series, the Indians had to do something different, and they did, quite tellingly.

Back in 1994, during the Sydney World Cup, the then coach Cedric D8217;Souza opted for a packed midfield of six to eight players to block the Europeans, and India finished fifth. Of course, it wasn8217;t exactly an original idea since Balkishen Singh had done much the same 10 years previously, during the 8217;84 LA Olympics where too the team had ended fifth.

The present coach Vasudevan Baskaran shuffled the formation like a card sharp no offense meant and came up with the trump move of bottling up Pakistan8217;s inside-right Mohammed Sarvar. To this end, he deployed all the three full-backs, with skipper Anil Aldrin shadowing Sarvar right through the game, even when the Pakistani ran behind the Indian goal posts during a long-corner hit! Aldrin as much deserved the Man of the Match as Mohammed Riaz who had an excellent outing did.

Of course, there was nothing sensational about the plan to mark the opposingschemer. After all, Sarvar8217;s predecessor, the great Shahbaz Ahmed, was subjected to similar marking. But the difference was that Shahbaz had the ability and the class to shake off the policing while Sarvar didn8217;t.

The strategy was simple but its execution simply outstanding, thanks to Aldrin8217;s experience.

The coach adopted a different formation that put more men in the defence with accent on quick counter-attacks. Not every Indian team in the past was able to adapt itself to the 8220;European system8221; of play with its overly defensive flavour, but everything clicked today for India.

The Pakistanis ran around, unable to break through the layers of defense. They had neither a Shahbaz nor a Kamran Ashraf nor a Tahir Zaman, and that they managed a mere two penalty corners reflected the grip Indians enjoyed.

Though India outplayed Pakistan, the performance level of both teams pales in comparison with the memorable 1995 SAF Games final which was an explosive cocktail of individual brilliance, artistry andemotions. Today, it was all about strategy and not much skill.