On a cold windy night, a golden dream became a reality.
Hold your breath. India won the Asian Games hockey gold medal against Pakistan in a pulsating shoot-out 4-2 after a 1-1 draw at the end of regulation time for a 5-3 aggregate as the Seonhak Hockey Stadium erupted in joy.
With this triumph India became the automatic qualifier for the Rio Olympics.
This was the moment Indian hockey was waiting after for 16 years from the Bangkok Asian Games in 1998. If there was a man-of-the-final prize it would have been given to Sreejesh for the brilliant saves he made in the shoot-out.
Rizwan (Sr.) strikes
Eventful in every sense of the epithet, it was a rousing final that kept the spectators at the edge of their seats.
If India looked sombre in the first quarter conceding an early goal to Rizwan (Sr.), in the rest of the quarters it was India that held the whip hand.
In the midfield, Gurbaj was the pick even overshadowing the irrepressible Sardar Singh with Kothajit Singh giving adequate support.
But the forwards were unable to make a combined move to threaten the rival defence. Quite a few chances were frittered away.
First it was Ramandeep who hit straight into the goalkeeper’s pads and then Sunil shot over.
India continued to exert pressure disturbing the composure of the Pakistan defenders with a series of long-range passes.
A penalty corner by Rupinderpal Singh was brilliantly saved by Imran Butt, but the equaliser looked imminent any second. And it did when a long-range drive by Gurbaj Singh culminated in Kothajit producing a stunning deflection into the boards.
It was nerve-wracking in the next two quarters despite India maintaining a firm grip on the contest.
Eventually, the tie ended 1-1 at the regulation time increasing the excitement all around.
But goalkeeper Sreejesh proved his class in effecting two brilliant saves, while for India Akashdeep Singh, Rupinderpal, Birendra Lakra and Dharambir scored with professional proficiency.
Memories of a similar victory flashes across the mind from Bangkok in 1998 when Ashish Ballal played the hero’s role. And today it was Sreejesh.
The results:
5-6: China 1 (Zhang Zhixuan) drew with Japan 1 (Kei Kawakami).
Shoot-out: China 4, Japan 3.
China 3 (Sun Long, Lei Ming, Sun Tianjun); Japan 3 (Ono Tomonori, Kenta Tanaka, Toshiro Tachibana):
Sudden-death: China 1 (Du Chen), Japan 0.
3-4: Korea 3 (Jang Jonghyun 2, Kim Youngjin) bt Malaysia 2 (Muhammad Razie).
Final: India 1 (Kothajit Singh) drew with Pakistan 1 (Rizwan Sr.).
Shoot-out: 4 (Akashdeep Singh, Rupinderpal Singh, Birendra Lakra, Dharambir Singh) bt Pakistan 2 (Muhammad Waqas, Shafqat Rasool).
Positions: 1. India; 2. Pakistan; 3. South Korea; 4. Malaysia; 5. China; 6. Japan; 7. Oman; 8. Bangladesh; 9. Singapore; 10. Sri Lanka.