India stun Australia to reach semi-finals
Tokyo/New Delhi: The Indian women's hockey team on Monday tore the form book to shreds as they stunned strong and experienced Australia 1-0 to enter the semi-finals of the Tokyo Olympics.
The Indian team scripted history by qualifying for the Olympic semi-finals for the first time ever.
The team went into a huddle after the long hooter, realising their dream had come true. Five years ago, when the Indian women's team finished last in the Rio Olympics, there was sarcasm and barbs.
But not this time. After looking so shaky early on in the league phase in Tokyo, the girls showed luck and pluck in ample measure can work magic. Gurjit Kaur had set the ball rolling early in the match, using the drag flick to score off a penalty corner. That changed the whole tone and tenor of the match. Such was the joy at Gurjit scoring the goal, her family in Amritsar was distributing sweets at home to visitors.
The Indian girls were loud and loquacious on the field. Watched by coach Sjoerd Marijne from the sidelines, there was constant chatter. The body language was sublime and the way they showed a willingness to play in the heat and humidity was praiseworthy.
On the Yo-Yo scale, used to evaluate fitness, the Indians rank high. They are lean and mean and play with great passion. There was everything to gain and nothing to lose. It meant, the girls in blue had to sustain their performance through four quarters, without giving much.
To beat the Hockeyroos, as the Aussies call themselves, was a big deal. In the end, as India won, the girls from Down Under were downcast. They simply did not know what had hit them.
The last time the Indians made it to the last four stage was in the 1980 Moscow Olympics where the Western Bloc boycott had rendered the Olympic Games very weak. India's opponents in the semi-finals will be Argentina, who defeated the much-fancied Germany 3-0 in the day's first quarter-final.
India, who lost their first three matches of the competition and finished fourth in Pool A, matched runaway Pool B winners Australia throughout the first two quarters. Since the time Rani's angled deflection rattled the right post, the Aussie defence was shaky.
Australia had their chances but Indian goalkeeper Savita Punia was outstanding. When Gurjit's penalty corner drag-flick somehow found its way into the bottom right corner, the Aussies had been done in.
The latter tried to throw everything at India, winning numerous penalty corner chances. However, the heroics of Savita and the deep defence showed this was going to be India's day.
"I don't know what to say because emotions are too high at the moment, and we all are very happy because it was not an easy game to win against Australia," said elated captain Rani. "But I'm super proud of my team; each one of them really worked so hard throughout the game. And we just said one thing to each other, 'Just believe in ourselves, we can do this well'."
Many cine buffs have seen Chak De India, which many years ago caught the attention of hockey lovers. Today, the reel story became real. The Indian team's success story is one of the rags to riches.
The girls come from humble backgrounds, have toiled hard in the national camp in Bengaluru for months. When more than eight players were hit by Covid-19 during the second wave, there was fear of the team's performance. After all, the fittest of humans have been dealing with the after-effects of the virus.
However, the Indian girls played together as one team. They knew a moment like this had come for them to show their character and class. And they did not let their fans down.
In an earlier match, when Vandana Katariya had scored a hat-trick, emotions ran high. Such has been her dedication that despite losing her father three months ago, she did not go home. She stayed back in the camp and trained.
"After we qualified for the quarter-finals, I told the team about the importance of being in the moment. I told them not to think about ifs and stay in the moment," said coach Sjoerd Marijne later.
"We didn't have a lot of practice matches before the Olympics so we kept telling the girls to improve with every match. We focused on every individual improving her performance and if the personal performances are better, then the performance of the team will be better. We knew that we had to learn from every match that we play since we didn't have a lot of games leading into the competition. After we lost 1-5 to the Netherlands, it looked as if everything was shattered but it wasn't. We only needed to make a few small improvements," added the coach.
"Today, I told the girls to just play freely. The pressure is on the other team and that's really important to know. The quarter-final matches are really difficult for the teams who are higher ranked. And I wanted the players to be proud of themselves today, regardless of the result," said Marijne.
"This match also proves that dreams can come true. If you start believing and you keep believing and you keep working hard, things can happen. You have to do the work to fulfil your dreams and that's what we did today," said an emotional Marijne who has bonded very well with the girls.
India will face Argentina in the semi-finals on August 4.
