Sohail AB BAS

Chief coach Rajinder Singh, however, remained bullish on qualifying even after today’s defeat. ‘‘We will definitely qualify for Athens’’, he told this paper, though the chances are receding.

Today’s match was lost in the tactics department; Pakistan played a defensive game but were able to score through the penalty corners, thanks to the unerring precision of PC expert Sohail Abbas, who converted all four chances.

Pakistan struck in the first minute of the match through a penalty-corner and again with eight minutes remaining to seal any chance of an India fightback.

Sohail, the one-man army from Karachi, virtually snatched the game away from India, his deadly drag-flicks maintaining Pakistan’s lead every time India narrowed the gap. He mixed his shots cleverly, sprinkling his flicks all over the Indian goal: the first flick was taken on the left, the next one to the right and the third goal was scored after piercing the centre of the Indian defence. The fourth, which sealed India’s fate was hit low but powerfully.

It wasn’t just a mattering of scoring through PCs; Pakistan made sure that they didn’t concede too many either. India were awarded just two PCs in the match, neither of which they could convert.

And the men in green showed the effect of coach Roelant Oltmans, playing a disciplined European-style defensive game and maintained ball possession when India scored their third goal in the second half to peg the lead back to 4-3.

Indeed, the match turned on PCs, and India’s inability to come up with a strategy to counter Pakistan in this area. If there was any, as India’s chief coach Rajinder Singh claimed there was after the match, it collapsed without a fight. The Indians had conceded 12 PCs to Malaysia in the previous match, though they won 5-3; today, the profligacy proved suicidal.

Rajinder blamed his goalkeeper Devesh Chauhan and said the defence was weakened because defender Kanwalpreet Singh was sitting out after being shown the yellow card.

The coach must also answer for his team selection; midfielder Baljit Singh Saini had another poor outing but the Indian think-tank continued to use him heavily in the match.

Unfortunately, the poor defensive tactics overshadowed some creditable performances — midfielder Viren Rasquinha had a terrific outing in both attack and defence. But it’s the same story in every major tournament — there are few players who are consistent.

The pressure was again on the forwards, who also delivered — Gagan Ajit scored a brace and Deepak Thakur got one while Baljit Singh Dhillon, ostensibly the main playmaker, was good in patches.

Captain Dilip Tirkey seemed to be playing under tremendous pressure while the substitute defender, the inexperienced William Xalxo, had to be utilised by the Indian team after Kanwalpreet Singh got the yellow card and showed his nerves.

It was very different for Pakistan, who fielded their young goalkeeper Akbar Salman ahead of veteran Ahmed Alam. Salman, as mentioned on Saturday, had been prepared by the Pakistani coach for this match at the Azlan Shah tournament played in Kuala Lumpur in January. And he saved at least five chances that the Indian forwards had.