Surviving Korean thriller

Rohit Mahajan in Hangzhou

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Jo Boley So Nihal — Sat Sri Akal!’ These cheers, ringing around the Gongshu Canal Sports Park, the hockey venue, seemed a bit out of place in such a tranquil and leafy setting. But the few Indian spectators in the stadium felt that the occasion demanded it, in order to rouse the Indian team out of defensive stupor.

The occasion was the semifinal of the hockey competition, against the hardy, fighting, but un-lowly South Korea — having led 3-0 after the first quarter, India had let them pump in four goals; the lead was reduced to 4-3, and the Indian players seemed to be going to pieces — they were leaving spaces for the Korean forwards, losing the ball through nervousness, and perhaps playing with trembling hands, making basic errors to trap the ball and were losing it. Fear does this to you — the Indian hockey team was playing fearful hockey and was all over the place.

India, by rights, should have won easily — they’re the Olympics bronze medallists, and ranked No. 3 in the world, the Koreans are not even in the world top-10. India were the hot favourites, having pumped in 58 goals, and conceded only five, in five matches here; they had smashed all comers in the pool stage, including Pakistan 10-2.

India started well enough, though, today — two goals in the first 11 minutes, during which the Koreans barely ventured into the Indian half, stamped their dominance on the game. Waves upon waves of attacks on the Korean goal was a good portend; Hardik scored in the fifth minute following a rebound after Lalit Upadhyay’s shot was blocked by goalkeeper Jaehyeon Kim. Mandeep made it 2-0 in the 11th minute, and in the final minutes of the first period, Upadhyay tapped in to make it 3-0, after Harmanpreet’s attempt was blocked by the Korean goalkeeper.

Then Manjae Jung struck twice in three minutes (17th, 20th) to stun the Indians — the first with a penalty corner conversion, the second with a deflection, after Jung was given too much space close to the Indian goal. Amit Rohidas gave India some breathing space with drag-flicked conversion of a penalty corner, making it 2-0. After half-time, South Korea began to dominate — they earned two penalty corners in quick time, and Jung scored off the second after a clever variation.

Things became desperate for both — the Koreans were desperate to get their fourth, the Indians were desperate to keep their one-goal lead and sneak into the final; having led 3-0 and 4-3, the Indians had everything to lose, the Koreans had everything to gain. Pressure told on the Indians and they started making basic errors. Head coach Craig Fulton, visibly unhappy, was trying to get his team to maintain its structure and focus on the basics.

“I think first half, we did quite well — we played simple hockey, stick to stick, not forcing,” said captain Harmanpreet Singh later. “Third quarter, it was a bit down… But we won the match.”

In the 54th minute, Abhishek gave India the goal they desperately needed — he slammed the ball in with a reverse-hit after Mandeep gave him a fine pass. The horrible moment of nervousness and shaky hands passed, the team and the spectators could breathe easy again.

They averted the horror of the 2018 Asiad, when they had lost to Malaysia in the semifinals after a penalty shootout — this after, as defending champions, they had scored 76 goals and let in only three in five matches.

Harmanpreet was relieved. “We dominated and took the lead in the first half. But semifinals are not easy, and anything can happen,” he said. “They wanted to go for penalty corners, because that’s their strength. They were throwing the ball in the 25-yard area and trying to put it in the striking area to earn penalty corners. So overall, I think we did well in defence.”

A team with 58 goals in the tournament being forced to defend desperately — a victory of sorts for South Korea. The Indians would be advised to maintain their calm in the final against Japan.

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INDIANS IN ACTION

Archery

Compound women’s team

last-8: Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Swami, Parneet Kaur 6:10am; Compound men’s team last-8: Ojas Deotale, Abhishek Verma, Samadhan Jawkar 11am

Athletics

Men’s marathon: A Belliappa, Man Singh 4:30am

Badminton

(6:50am onwards)

Women’s singles last-8:

PV Sindhu; Men’s singles last-8: HS Prannoy; Men’s doubles last-8: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty

Bridge

(6:30am onwards)

Men’s team final

Chess

(12:30pm onwards)

Round 7 of team events

Hockey

Women’s semifinals:

India vs China 1:30pm

Kabaddi

Men’s Group A:

India vs Chinese Taipei 8am

& India vs Japan 1:30pm

Squash

Mixed doubles final: Dipika Pallikal & Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu 11:30am; Men’s singles final: Saurav Ghosal 2:30pm

Wrestling

(7:30am onwards)

Women’s: Pooja Gehlot (50kg), Antim (53kg), Mansi (57kg); Greco-Roman: Narinder Cheema (97kg), Naveen (130kg)