There were a couple of interesting throwbacks in India's 5-1 win over Canada in their final pool match at the World Cup. It's been some 30 years since India last routed the notoriously resilient team by that wide a margin - they won by the same scoreline against Canada at the 1988 Olympics. Old timers might remember that Mohammad Shahid scored a brace in that match. It was another Varanasi lad, Lalit Upadhyay, who scored a brace on Saturday.
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Upadhyay, who also won player of the match, would earn a penalty corner through a bit of old-school dribbling that led to India's fourth goal - scored by Amit Rohidas doing a Dilip Tirkey impression. Instead of drag flicking the stopped ball, Rohidas pushed it inside the circle, stepped forward and drilled it wide of goalkeeper Antoni Kindler's outstretched right leg. The direct strike has fallen out of fashion in recent years, replaced by the far flashier flick. Tirkey was the last Indian to strike the short corner with any regularity, but its rarity has actually added to its effectiveness.
But for all the flashbacks to a different, perhaps grander era of Indian hockey, India's performance had a contemporary ruthlessness about it. Particularly so in the final quarter, in which they pumped in four goals against an increasingly bewildered opponent. Canada had been hopeful of frustrating the hosts by keeping things tight and making the most of their scoring opportunities. It was a tactic that had been fairly effective for them in the recent past - they had lost one, drawn one and won one in their last three matches against India. They pride themselves on making things difficult for opposing attackers, and that's what they had done thus far in the tournament, having conceded three goals from two games, including two in a close loss to Olympic silver medallists Belgium.
India, coming off a five-day break, with key midfielder Manpreet Singh slowed down by the effects of a cold, might have been wary of a potential banana peel. They needed to win to qualify directly for the quarterfinals. Yet for the first three quarters of the match, the Canadians proved a hard nut to crack. India had far more chances but were wasteful in their eagerness to score. Harmanpreet's 12th-minute drag flick to the low right of goal was neutralized in the third quarter after a deflected goal by Floris van Son completed a counterattack.
"If you had told us we were going to be 1-1 after three quarters of the match, we would have taken it," Canada captain Scott Tupper would say.
Yet once India got an opening, they jammed their foot all the way through. They found it through vice-captain Chinglensana Singh, who pounced on a loose ball after Canada's Kindler blocked a long range drive from Kothajit Singh. Chinglensana didn't stop the ball, which would have given a marking defender enough time to block his attempt. Instead, he volleyed to give India the lead.
Their tails up, India began pressing Canada high in their half. "Our plan was not to give any space to Canada. We wanted to put pressure on them each time they had the ball," Chinglensana would say after the game.
It paid off almost instantly with Upadhyay stealing the ball from Sukhi Panesar close to the shooting circle, before turning to throw off the desperate defender and shoot past the goalkeeper. Four minutes later, he would create a penalty corner with a bit of magic and six minutes after that he would score his second.
India weren't done though. With three minutes to go, India took off PR Sreejesh, who was anyway having very little to do. With an extra attacker in place, they were going for a sixth goal. They wouldn't get one, even though they nearly had a penalty corner in the final seconds.
"I should have removed the goalkeeper with five minutes to go. But it just slipped my mind. I had gone into the match with a target of winning 6-0. I wanted to put pressure on our next opponents," coach Harendra Singh said after the match.
Indeed, despite the comprehensive win, he wasn't entirely satisfied. "We couldn't get a clean-sheet. I feel bad about it. By conceding, you give away the momentum to opponents," he said.
The momentum is entirely with India right now. They are now a win away from becoming the first Indian team in 38 years to reach the semi-finals of a World Cup or Olympic event. Harendra knows the challenge. "We have just played a four-nation tournament (referring to the pool stage). The World Cup starts now," he said.