Believe. It is what Spaniard Jose Brasa said to his team before they took on Pakistan. Not once but what felt like an hour every day as they headed into their World Cup opener.
Believe in your skills, not your emotions, he said. The man who was the oldest coach at the World Cup told the young men who had trashed his room due to a birthday party a few nights ago, to believe that they had trained and they had planned and now all they had to do was to show the world what they could do.
Lock down Pakistan's best, give their mid-field nothing to lean on nor their defence any time to fall back on and beat their most fierce rivals 4-1. In a match they couldn't afford to lose - or it would mean losing respect and reputation both - the Indians played like free men. Unshackled by history, unburdened by controversy, unhindered by a bruised past. They played as if they were advertising the partnership inside their ranks of what used to be Indian hockey's most adversarial entities: skill and strategy. As if they were Rudyard wrong, that in this part of the world, there are times that east and west come to face to face and then even shake hands.
Defender Dhananjay Mahadik, built like a mid-sized mahogany cupboard said that it was not easy detaching the mind from the fact that this was the World Cup, that was going to be Pakistan and they were central to the sport that had only courted bad news for the last two months. It had happened not because they did yoga or mind-training, but because they kept to skills, kept to duties and kept to the ball. "We knew our duties were going to perform, not our emotions. Our minds had to work and not our feelings", Mahadik said after the game.
They did in every aspect of the game. Apart from Sandeep Singh's two goals and Prabhjyot Singh's dashing on the sideline and embracing coach Brasa as if the World Cup was already won, the belief was powerful everywhere, in the men doing the most humble of duties: in Mahadik hollering at Deepak Thakur trying to let rip out a turf burner rather than pass the ball into vacant space. In Shivendra Singh sliding over his knees to reach and trap the ball before it crossed Pakistan's backline. In Bharat Chikara attaching himself like industrial adhesive to any Pakistani who showed up near the goal mouth. In Adrian D'Souza, goalkeeper when India lost 3-6 in the last match between the two countries at the Champions Challenge in December and out of this match, going to every colleague near him, putting his paw around their head and giving them and egging them on minutes before the match started.
While the other teams prepared for the World Cup playing friendlies - like Pakistan did against Holland - the Indians sealed themselves off in training. Not because they were hatching secret plans but because no opposition could be invited as the stadium was not ready in time. Now it is not even close to alls well that ends well stuff but whatever India have done in the last three months, looks like it has energized their on-field play.
Against Pakistan, the Indians reeled out the rolling substitutions, tried to earn maximum penalty corners to make the most gains, swapped positions freely, played with their feet on every pedal and captain Rajpal Singh sent the ball into a defender's foot, the classic European trap to gain a short corner.
Yet no matter what Brasa and his boys did to beat Pakistan, it was a night heaving with emotion. The match was watched by a less-than-capacity-crowd of about 14,000 (not because there were no buyers of seats but because the organizers hoarded a large number for themselves) whose collective lung power still would have stirred every restful ghost from nearby Purana Qila to distant Qutub Minar.
A giant moon the colour of Dutch cheese watched over the game and when a group of about fifty Pakistanis entered the stadium during the previous England vs Australia match, they were greeted by a robust round of noise. The mismatched rivals exchanged a bout of flag-waving and chanting that was as spirited as it was good natured. As the two teams walked out onto the field, two players on either side gave each other a high-five and the crowd stayed respectful during the Pakistani national anthem. Yes, there was a small clutch of school-tie-clad-yo-yos who spent some time over an anti-Pakistani stanza but when the Indians came hurtling in their direction heading towards goal, they were swept away into silence.
In the tumult and turbulence of a crowd that seemed to add wheels to Indian feet, that too was a quiet but prolonged passage of satisfaction. There are some parts of the country - most particularly now, Mumbai - that this could not have happened.
For all the over-zealous security, regular embarrassments and recent track records, Delhi and the Indian hockey team did rather good tonight.
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