Sultan Azlan Shah Cup: Exuberant, yes but India’s inexperience ultimately proved costly

The India men’s hockey team arrived in Ipoh, Malaysia with a young side to compete in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup. With the likes of Australia, England, Argentina bringing their first team, India coach Sjoerd Marijne wanted to test the waters ahead of a gruelling 2018 season, which sees them participate in six tournaments including the World Cup.

It’s worth remembering that when we analyse India’s defeat against the Argentina in their opening game on Saturday. In the end, the score line read 3-2 in the favour of the Olympic champions in a match that ebbed and flowed, hit by a 45-minute break in play due to adverse weather.

The Indian team did put up a fight and fought their way back into the match after being 2-0 down. It was defender Amit Rohidas who scored a brace via penalty corners to make it 2-2 before Gonzalo Peillat completed his hat-trick and helped Argentina cross the line.

Defensive lapses 

India started strongly in the opening 10 minutes of the game, pressing high instead of opting to counterattack, and should really have scored with two big chances being spurned in the D. They made four circles entries and had 60% possession but did not have a goal to show for their efforts.

“To play against the Olympic champions is never easy. The first ten minutes we were dominating and we had the chances to score which didn’t happen,” coach Sjoerd Marijne told The Field after the match. “We then gave our initiative away to Argentina and then they got the penalty corner. With Peillat it is always dangerous so that is why we conceded.”

Argentina then began dictating terms and India began losing the ball all too easily.

“There were defensive lapses in the first two quarters. Also in the third during the one-versus-one when Argentina used their aerial skills. We had a lot of problems with that. But in the fourth quarter it was better and it is important to improve in every quarter keeping in mind [Sunday’s] match. In the end we were much better in the one-versus-one,” said Marijne.

46 fouls!

India’s exuberance translated into early pressure but the fouls then started following. The discipline of the first 10 minutes had vanished. During the entire duration of the match, India committed 46 fouls compared to the 26 by Argentina.

That also meant Argentina had seven penalty corners in the match while India had only four. “I think a few of them were too easy and they were soft goals. That is what we have to improve. We can’t give away seven penalty corners in a match,” added Marijne.

At the end of the fourth quarter, Sumit was handed a yellow, which meant that India were down to 10 men for the rest of the match when chasing an equaliser. “The yellow card to Sumit, well I don’t want to say too much about it. We must always avoid cards. We are playing against a really skillful team. Sometimes you really want the ball but then end up attacking the stick. It is something we have to improve,” said Marijne.

During that period, Talwinder Singh almost found an equalizer as Sumit watched from the sidelines.

Amit Rohidas steps up

In the third quarter, India regained their composure and began retrieving the ball more. And to their credit, the youngsters did not stop fighting.

And one of the biggest positives from the match was Amit Rohidas, who was at his best as he converted two penalty corners to help India fight their way back into the match. In the absence of regular PC experts Rupinder Pal Singh and Harmanpreet Singh, India could have been fretting over their set-piece conversion rates. But boy, did Rohidas step up.

“Amit was outstanding. He worked really hard like the rest of the team. Maybe in another match someone else will perform outstandingly better. It is a team performance. Today it was Amit who performed brilliantly,” said Marijne.

Debutants Mandeep Mor, Sumit Kumar and Shilanand Lakra were impressive in patches during the match but there is scope for improvement as far as consistency over the 60 minutes is concerned.

India will now face England, the defending champions on Sunday and Marijne knows that the team has to extend their impressive opening phase against Argentina over the duration of the match.