Surrendering the two goal leads not once but twice and conceding the equaliser with forty seconds left, India suffered another humiliation, sharing points with Japan at 4-4 in the BDO Masters hockey tournament on Sunday. With a solitary point in three matches, India finished at the bottom of the table in this four-nation event.
Again it is a familiar story of beautiful field goals, comfortable leads and a caving in during the last five minutes, and, of course, yellow cards; there were two in this contest at the crucial time when the Japanese were in full cry to pick the goals.
Three of their four goals came from penalty corner strikes. Their Dutch coach, Siegfried Aikman, of Surinam origin must have been thrilled at the outcome; the fifth draw in the 65 encounters of which India is credited with winning 60.
That aside, there needs to be a serious introspection in to why the team preparing for the Commonwealth Games is unable to hold on to the leads obtained usually with excellent efforts.
All the Indian goals, including the drag-flick by Sandeep Singh had class written all over them but the solecisms inside during the dying moments nullified all the niceties, the athleticism, adeptness and aesthetics, projected.
Amir Khan’s backhander off a cross from Ravinder in the early minutes was splendid effort. So was the tap in by Danish Mujtaba to a centre from Gurbaj. Till then everything was rolling brilliantly for the Indians, who kept the Japanese attack calm.
Midway through the pressure palpably increased and the first penalty corner ended with Sakamoto deflecting the push by Nagaswa. The Japanese are now impeccable in their indirect conversion of penalty corners that even surprised the Germans and the Dutchmen in their earlier matches.
The 2-1 lead seemed to disintegrate any moment. A yellow card for Ravinder signalled the emerging discordant notes in the defensive phalanx that brought the equaliser from another penalty corner by Tsubochi off Nagaswa. The teams then came on level.
Thanks to the fluent runs by Mandeep Antil, Danish Mujtaba and Amir Khan, the pressure on the Japanese defenders intensified.
Sandeep Singh drag-flicked beautifully to the roof of the net. What followed a superlative effort of the match, a solo run and finish by the diminutive Bharat Chikkara. Only 13 minutes remained from the hooter at this juncture.
But two minutes before it emerged the third goal for Japan, a carpet drive by Nagasaw beating Sreejesh all ends up. At this point, Gurbaj got the yellow card for hitting the ball after the whistle. Left with 10, the Indian defenders allowed a counter attack to culminate in Tschbochi finding the net with 40 seconds before the final whistle.
Coach Brasa was at a loss for words to react to the verdict. He is unable to fathom why this old ‘illness’ as he puts it, of conceding defeats in the final minutes has come to haunt the team again.
As for the selectors’ approach to discard the seniors and experiment with youth at the crucial point of time, the move has flopped, clearly and transparently in this tournament.
Even now, it is not too late to rush the likes of Halappa, Vikram Pillay and, if possible, Shivendra, to join the team for the rest of the European tour. Else, the whole exercise of the tour will be a waste of time, money and effort.
The result: India 4 (Amir Khan, Danish Mujtaba, Sandeep Singh, Bharat Chikkara) drew with Japan 4 (Hiroki Sakamoto, Kazuhiro Tsubochi 2, Nagasawa) HT 2-1.
