Paris Olympics: Great India defeat Britain in hockey, storm into semis

Rohit Mahajan in Paris

Watch the ball, save the ball,” says PR Sreejesh, goalkeeper of the Indian hockey team, explaining his method minutes after shepherding the team into the semifinals of the Paris Olympics.

Editorial: Politicising sports

Sreejesh watched the ball. Sreejesh saved the ball. No less than 23 times, according to one count, in the regulation 60 minutes of the quarterfinal against Great Britain, and once in the penalty shootoff that India won 4-2. Sreejesh put India in the semifinals of the Olympics for the second time in a row.

Lakshya in hunt for bronze

Paris: India’s dream of a first-ever Olympic gold in badminton remained unfulfilled after Lakshya Sen lost to reigning champion Viktor Axelsen in the men’s singles semifinals on Sunday. The 22-year-old from Almora squandered opportunities before surrendering 20-22 14-21 to Axelsen. He will get a shot at becoming the first Indian male shuttler to win an Olympic medal when he meets Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia in the bronze medal playoff. 

Lovlina fails to fire
Tokyo bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain loses in the women’s middle-weight (75kg) quarterfinal.

Victory for India seemed out of the question two minutes into the second quarter. India suffered a mortal blow in the 17th minute — Amit Rohidas, defender, raised his stick while on the run and caught the man behind his right shoulder, Will Calnan, on the face. Calnan went down. The TV umpire sent Rohidas out.
Playing with 10 men for 43 minutes — 10 versus the world’s No. 2 team’s 11 — the Indians didn’t have a hope in hell, for even before that, 11 vs 11, Great Britain had been dominant. Rohidas being on the bench, however, gave the team a sense of purpose. They had to defend resolutely — but they had to attack, too, for simply sitting back would have rendered them sitting ducks.
India, their minds sharpened by the 17th minute horror, took the lead five minutes later — Vivek Sagar Prasad’s exceptional run, dribbling through the British defence, took him into the opposition circle and a foul gave India their fourth penalty corner. Harmanpreet stepped up and smashed the ball into the goal with a powerful dragflick — fired up, he shouted and pointed to his own head, telling all that he was focused, had the strength of the mind.
Five minutes later, though, an unmarked Morton sent the ball in — it scraped past Sreejesh’s chest, and he fell sideways and attempted to keep it out, but it was too late.
The British red shirts surged into the Indian half in wave after wave of attack; they crashed into Sreejesh, the last line of defence, in waves but he stood firm.
Four times in the first 10 minutes in the third quarter, Sreejesh denied Great Britain with top-class penalty corner saves. The Britons, who last won an Olympics medal in 1988, have demons in their own minds, and they started getting edgy as the clock ticked; the Indians, conversely, were made stronger in the mind by the robustness of their defence.
Sreejesh made three saves in the last 10 minutes, blocking a great effort by Calnan in the very last minute. The hooter went off, and the Indians celebrated — a draw with 10 men tasted sweeter than victory, and was down to the shootoff now, and India had Sreejesh.
Harmanpreet, Sukhjeet Singh, Lalit Upadhyay and Rajkumar Pal scored in the shootoff; Connor Williamson hit his shot wide — and then Sreejesh saved Britain’s fourth, blocking Phillip Roper’s shot.
Seconds, Sreejesh was lying on his back on the turf, Manpreet Singh by his side, both in the embrace of coach Craig Fulton. “We had no option but to defend hard after the red card,” said Harmanpreet. “We did that! Ek bande se kam poora match khela — the best defensive game we’ve played.”
Sreejesh, the cynosure of all eyes, handed the glory to his men. “It’s not about me, it’s about them,” he said. “When they scored in the shootoff, they made my job easy!”
As Manpreet, the former captain, said, “Sreejesh saves!”
In Tuesday’s semifinals, India will play the winner of the quarterfinal between Germany and Argentina.