Rebirth after dying minutes drama

But credit should go to the young German side. They were incredibly fast in attack and clean tacklers. The second quality highlighted by the fact that they conceded just one penalty corner to the feared Indian attack.

On the other hand, Germany could get three penalty corners. But they scored through a field goal and a penalty stroke.

The Indian attack has always looked formidable with Gagan as the poacher, Dhanraj Pillay as withdrawn forward while Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh pressing from the wings. But unfortunately in both the games they haven’t shown consistency.

Today in the first-half they were out of sorts and with coach Rajinder Singh introducing Gagan only after the first 10 minutes it added to the trouble. Veteran Baljit Singh Dhillon was a passenger in the forwardline and was often guilty of playing spoiler to the Indian counters – he unnecessary held the ball longer than necessary.

Despite being a goal down the Indians went all out in the second half. While Deepak and Prabhjot pressed hard from the left, Gagan kept the German half on the other side busy with his deft moves and incisive deflections. They were supported by their skipper Dhanraj Pillay who set up the crucial first goal.

It was a brilliant move which was initiated from the centreline. Gagan relayed the ball to Dhanraj and dashed into the D.

The Indian skipper rushed with the ball to the corner of the D and after drawing out a couple of defenders passed to Gagan, who scored with a piercing shot.

However despite the win, there are quite a flaws which Indian chief coach Rajinder Singh needs to iron out.

His bench strength was once again exposed after Dilip Tirkey got injured and midfielder Viren Rasquinha was substituted. The defence became porous in the absence of these two players and it was exploited by the speedy German wingers.

Maybe in the games to come things will improve. As they did today after yesterday nightmare.