CWG 2018 Hockey report: Pakistan hold India to a controversial 2-2 draw

India were held to a controversial 2-2 draw in their opening Pool B encounter at the 2018 Commonwealth Games after Pakistan were awarded a penalty corner with just 7.3 seconds to go following a video referral.

Leading 2-1 at that stage, it looked like India had three full points in the bag when skipper Manpreet Singh cleared the ball from the striking circle. However, Pakistan went for a video referral and were awarded a penalty corner.

Though India managed to defend the first penalty corner, Pakistan once again went for a referral claiming that the ball had hit the defenders leg and the video umpire concurred.

Ali Mubashar did not make any mistake with the second attempt as he beat Indian custodian PR Sreejesh with a low flick to the right of the goalkeeper to kick off frenzied celebrations on the Pakistan bench and the pitch.

Former India skipper Viren Rasquinha, sitting in the television studio, was quick to express his surprise at the two video referrals saying, “Both the referral decisions were very surprising. To my eyes, I have been trying to watch this as closely, there was no foot. Very, very controversial decisions. I think the video umpire was watching something else.”

The controversy at the end apart, India were guilty of throwing away the game in the second half as they allowed the pressure to build by dropping guard after the change of ends and were duly punished for their mistakes.

It was clearly a match of two halves for the Indians, who began the opener with great purpose. Though the game began with end-to-end attacks from both teams, India was clearly the better side going forward and the midfield always looked in control during the first half.

They were constantly on the lookout for goals and the breakthrough finally came in the 13th minute when Dilpreet Singh finished a fine pass from SV Sunil.

The momentum was firmly with India and though they could not get another goal in the remaining two minutes of the first quarter, the Asian champions doubled the lead seven minutes later with Harmanpreet Singh converting the team’s third penalty corner.

With their backs to the wall, Pakistan began to counter attack but Sreejesh came up with a couple of good saves to ensure that the Indians went into the break with the lead intact.

Match of two halves

However, India looked like a different team after the break as the midfield lost the ball too easily and too often and their was more individual play up front.

On the other hand, Pakistan raised the tempo of their play and began attacking from both flanks to put pressure on the Indian defence.

It was one such move from the left by Muhammad Dilber which allowed Muhammad Irfan Jr to reduce the deficit in the 39th minute.

The Indians were always on the back foot from there on and though coach Sjoerd Marijne tried to tell the players to focus on the plan and control the proceedings, the pressure was clearly telling on them given how they were handling things in the middle.

But all that would have been forgotten had the drama in the final seven seconds not resulted in an equaliser.

Rasquinha was right in pointing out that the Indians did not deserve to win after the way they played in the second half.

“Very poor performance by India. We played well initially but after that we got complacent. We couldn’t hold possession for 3-4 passes. We just brought this upon ourselves. India did not deserve a win given the way we played today. Lot of explaining to do for the players,” he added.