Graham Reid’s last tweet before August 1 was on March 5. The Indian men’s hockey team’s head coach isn’t too much of a social media person.
But something prompted him to take to Twitter from Birmingham early on Monday morning ahead of India’s second 2022 Commonwealth Games (CWG) outing. “Big game today vs England!” he tweeted.
It wasn’t a medal match, but in the context of who India could avoid—serial gold-winning team Australia in the semi-final, to be specific—in its quest later in the week, it was critical. A win against England in their second men’s Pool B match would go a long way in that, a defeat not so.
For more than half of the contest, the first scenario looked increasingly likely, but the odds are bound to be dragged back when you’re down a man or two for the remainder of it. From 3-0 up at half-time to 4-2 in the 46th minute, India were held to a 4-4 draw by the hosts who rode on the sizeable local crowd that had turned up at the University of Birmingham.
The decisive difference, though, was in the cards conceded: India 4, England 0.
“Those cards really hurt us,” India captain Manpreet Singh said. “It kind of undid all the good teamwork that we did leading up to it.”
It’s not the result India had set out to achieve from this key group game, but it’s not the worst either. They sit behind the hosts with four points having played a match fewer, India’s massive 11-0 win in their opener against Ghana on Sunday giving them an edge over England in the goal difference so far. Keep an eye out for that as the rest of the pool matches play out.
The Indian captain has seen enough good things from the team, which finished fourth in the last CWG, so far here to expect greater things from the week ahead. “The performance has been good overall so far. Even today, even after those two cards, we showed a lot of teamwork, covered each other’s mistakes. That was the big takeaway. We will carry that belief ahead for the rest of the matches here,” he said.
Mandeep Singh struck a couple of goals (13th, 22nd) to back up Lalit Upadhyay’s early pace-setter in the third minute. Liam Ansell pulled one back in the 42nd minute before Harmanpreet Singh converted a penalty corner in the 46th. But Nick Bandurak’s brace (47th, 53rd) on either side of Phil Roper’s 51st minute strike undid India’s first-half numbers.
Down to 10 men with Varun Kumar already carded onto the chair, India’s man advantage was reduced even further to nine with eight minutes on the clock as Gurjant Singh was shown the yellow. Substituted, PR Sreejesh was yelling down instructions from the sidelines as Reid looked on with a concerned look. Seconds later, Bandurak found the easy touch in front of the goal to finish a brilliant run from the right.
“For the rest of the matches now, our main goal will be to not concede cards. It forced us to pull back really deep, whereas we were quite attacking before that. So we really have to keep a watch on those cards now,” Manpreet said.
If India were out to make a statement for what’s to come when the medal matches come calling, it didn’t take long for them. Earning an early penalty corner, Upadhyay ensured it didn’t go to waste, being at the right place to dish out a fine finish despite a save by the English custodian. Mandeep made it 2-0 with a brilliant reverse hit, and 3-0 early in the second quarter despite being a man down.
Manpreet said one of their key plans for this tournament is to set the tone of their play early against the teams. “Our intention was to start strong and with a lot of purpose. We started the same way against Ghana too—got a few PCs early. What happens with a solid start is the team then builds up well for the rest of the match and the confidence kicks in,” he said.
The first half ended with a neat 3-0 scoreline, India sitting pretty but with England not too far away from breathing down their necks. Those Indian cards would eventually bring them up level.