Nilakanta Sharma, the midfielder from Imphal, has played nearly 100 matches for India. Unfortunately, his contribution has largely gone unnoticed in most of those games. Away from the media glare, he has been an unsung hero — one who joins the dots between the centre-half and flanks and the forwards. In the Asian Champions Trophy final against Malaysia, he was at it again.
At 9.59 PM local time, Nilakanta snapped his wrist and laid the platform for India’s attack, which eventually resulted in a penalty stroke. Skipper Harmanpreet Singh duly netted the goal. In the dying moments of the third quarter, India had pulled one back to make it 2-3.
Suddenly, the hockey became fast-paced and incisive, and the atmosphere at Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium in Chennai electrifying. With momentum on their side, India levelled scores in the same quarter, the lively Gurjant Singh cracking the equaliser.
India didn’t stop there. In the last quarter, they made enough circle penetrations. Sukhjeet Singh made an error while passing, and that was followed by Malaysian goalkeeper, Othman Hafizuddin’s fine save. India, however, kept pushing, leading to the match-changing goal by Akashdeep Singh. It must have boosted the confidence of the player who wasn’t at his best in Chennai.
The last goal again showed the essence of teamwork. Sukhjeet won the ball and Mandeep Singh turned out to be an ideal foil for Akashdeep to provide the finishing touches. Just a few minutes later, in front of a boisterous crowd, India were crowned champions for the fourth time.
Craig Fulton, the India coach, highlighted the team’s collective approach after the come-from-behind win. “I think these guys are trusting each other and also trusting that they can do the job. We did not play as well as we wanted to (in the first half). But that’s fine. I thought the guys were class. The younger guys stood up, and so did the older ones. It was a really good mix of those who were playing and those who came on to keep the pressure. The character of the group was great,” he said.
So with this triumph, has India found all the missing pieces of the jigsaw? Perhaps not. In the first two quarters, the likes of Kamal Abu, Azuan Hassan & Co ran India ragged. It is true that India still had more possession (56%). Also, India were better at circle penetrations in the first half — nine against Malaysia’s seven — but it was clear that the home team was rattled.
On occasions, the defence wasn’t up to the mark. India are at their best when they play an attacking brand of hockey but good defence is also a key component of the game. In fact, when Fulton took over as coach, he had shared his thoughts on this. “We want to keep the Indian style of play, which means a lot of attacking hockey. But, at the same time, it does not help if you can’t defend,” the South African had said in a virtual media interaction.
“Our striker line-up is helping win more penalty-corners and this is what we want. But overall, we just need to improve our defending from front to back,” he added.
In that respect, in the last two quarters, India showed a great deal of resolve to bounce back. It wasn’t just the forwards. The defence and midfield supplemented them well. At the other end, Malaysia mostly tried to hold on to the ball, in order to maintain the lead, and lost momentum.
For the engine room to navigate through tricky roads, the ancillary parts need to function. The Nilakantas, Gurjants, Hardiks, Shamshers and Karthis were as important and effective as the Harmanpreets and Akashdeeps for the Indian team. They ran hard, as if lives were dependent on that.
“Fitness at the crucial moments like towards the end of the tournaments is important. You have to have enough in you if you are chasing a game, like we had to do today, press for the whole second half. You need to have that in you. Fitness is one of the main priorities of the modern game we play,” Fulton noted.
India have a lot at stake in the coming months. First there is the Asian Games, where they would eye gold and qualification for the Paris Olympics. And if everything goes well at the Asian Games, they would have to again implement their plans against the European giants other than Australia. Fulton and Harmanpreet, the captain, would believe there is enough synergy in the camp for the bigger battles ahead.