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Journalism of Courage
On a rainy Friday in Chennai, it poured goals for India. When asked where his side must improve after that performance, head coach PR Sreejesh’s response after the 7-0 win against Chile was pithy. Put the ball in the back of the net some more. And so his wards did, seventeen goals scored, none conceded as they outplayed Oman – a last-minute addition to the tournament, replacing Pakistan – to win 17-0 and keep the momentum building towards tougher tests ahead.
After struggling for goals in the opening quarter against Chile, India hit the ground running early, and the tone was set by Arshdeep Singh, one of the three Indian players to score a hat-trick. The 21-year-old from Leharka near Amritsar opened India’s account in the fourth minute after a sensational piece of individual skill. He played a nice give-and-go with Rosan Kujur down the right, received the ball down the left byline, but still had a lot to do. He beat his marker at the edge of the circle, drove along the backline and lifted the ball past the keeper from almost a zero-degree angle. It’s the sort of thing he had been working hard on, leading up to this tournament.
Arshdeep made a big impression at the Hockey India League earlier this year with the finalists Hyderabad Toofans, earning the emerging player of the tournament award. There, his chance-creation skills stood out, as he consistently displayed excellent stick-craft to win Penalty Corners for his side. But during the course of the tournament – after which he even earned his senior India cap – he also understood that as a forward, he needed to become prolific at scoring goals too. So he got down to work.
“In the HIL, there were two foreign forwards in our Toofans side, Tim Brand and Jacob Anderson. I got to learn a lot from them about backhand techniques,” Arshdeep told The Indian Express on Saturday after India’s win. “They also explained about positioning in great detail. They told me to spend as much time as possible working on those shooting techniques after HIL was over. So I worked hard on it. During camp, on my off days, I did extra practice sessions, just direct-to-goal shooting. Princedeep chala hi jaata tha mere saath goalkeeping ke liye. Around 45-50 minutes of shooting till my arms started hurting, and then I worked on my skills for a bit longer.”
Son of a farmer, Arshdeep began playing hockey in the footsteps of his elder brother, and got his formal coaching education with Roundglass Punjab, from where he made his mark in the nationals. “A few years back, I felt like quitting the sport because I didn’t make it to the camp after nationals. That was a tough phase for me, but my brother and parents backed me,” Arshdeep had told this daily earlier this year. “And HIL gave me the platform to show my skills that have been recognised; without such exposure, it’d have been difficult.”
When India scored three in three minutes during the third quarter, Arshdeep got his second, converting from the edge of the circle. For his third goal, Arshdeep pulled out a skill from his bag of tricks, picking up a loose ball near the penalty stroke marker, performing a 360-degree durn and hitting a tomahawk past the goalkeeper. Alongside Arshdeep, Dilraj Singh (four goals) and Manmeet Singh (three goals) had impressive outings as well.
It seems perhaps silly to point this out on a night when they scored 17, but the first half saw India struggle with converting Penalty Corners. The conditions did play a major part in it, as the turf had taken a battering from the incessant rain in Chennai all afternoon, making the playing surface heavy and slow. It was only from the 11th PC in the first half that they managed to score as Anmol Ekka drilled it low and to the left of Ahmed al Naabi who, until then, had been blocking off everything that India threw at him.
In the second half, India resorted to simple variations from the set pieces, sometimes just sending in a bobbling pass instead of a flat injection and recycling the ball. Simultaneously, Oman’s defence wilted under the physicality of it all. The final figures read five PC goals from 20 chances for a 25% conversion rate, but Sreejesh and Co would know that there is work to be done in that regard when they take on high-flying underdogs Switzerland in their next match on Tuesday.
Scoreline: India 17 (Manmeet Singh (17′, 26′, 36′), Arshdeep Singh (4′, 33′, 40’), Dilraj Singh (29′, 32′, 58’), Anmol Ekka (29′), Ajeet Yadav (34′, 47′), Gurjot Singh (39′, 45′) Ingalemba Thounaojam Luwang (43′, 50′), Sharda Nand Tiwari (55′)) beat Oman 0.
