It's a testament to the men's Hockey India League's quality that just one point separated the top four teams going into the semifinals. Shrachi Rarh Bengal Tigers, who finished on top with 19 points, will take on fourth-placed Tamil Nadu Dragons in the first semifinal. JSW Soorma Hockey Club, who also got to 19 points but finished second, will face Hyderabad Toofans in the second semifinal.
Here's a closer look at each semifinal with key players and battles to watch out for:
Shrachi Rarh Bengal Tigers vs Tamil Nadu Dragons at 6 PM
While Bengal Tigers finished on top and Dragons fourth, it doesn't mean there's a big gap in quality between both the teams. Dragons, in fact, were leading the table for a long time before suffering a couple of defeats in the final stretch of matches. There really isn't much between these two sides. In the league stage, Bengal scored 24 goals and conceded 22 while the Dragons scored 22 and conceded 23.
One area where Bengal have an edge over the Dragons is penalty corner conversion. The in-form Jugraj Singh has scored nine goals from dragflicks this season, the best in the league. He's also the second highest-scorer in the league overall, behind Vedanta Kalinga Lancers' Thierry Brinkman, who scored 10. Rupinder Pal Singh, too, has chipped in with five goals, includes two from penalty strokes. Head coach Colin Batch will be pleased that his team has two in-form dragflickers going into the knockouts.
The Dragons have Jip Jansen as their main dragflicker and he has scored seven times so far. However, their main strength has been their midfield with the likes of Mohammed Raheel, Tom Craig, Uttam Singh, Thomas Sorsby and Martin Zwicker impressing with attacking nous and relentlessness. In their last league match against UP Rudras, Dragons were trailing 0-2 and were in danger of not qualifying but it was their midfield who turned things around by continuously winning the ball in the middle of the pitch.
It's a tough one to predict since these two teams are equally matched but if Dragons continue to give penalty corner chances to their opponents in the semifinals, they will come back the next day and play the third place playoff instead of the final.
JSW Soorma Hockey Club vs Hyderabad Toofans at 8:15 PM
Here, too, the face-off is between two evenly matched teams. Soorma, captained by Harmanpreet Singh, have the same number of outright wins as Toofans, who are being captained by Harmanpreet's defensive partner in India colours - Sumit. However, Soorma finished ahead on points thanks to three shootout wins to Toofans' two.
The best part about Toofans has been their Indian setup with impressive performances from Amandeep Lakra, Arshdeep Singh, Shilanand Lakra, Rajinder Singh and Talwinder Singh. All these players have played only a few games, if any, for India but have shown tremendous promise, which is of course good news for Indian hockey.
Toofans have plenty of goals in them, with Gonzalo Peillat converting six penalty corners so far and Tim Brand scoring six field goals. There's Amandeep who has been a big revelation when it comes to penalty corners, scoring thrice while Maico Casella, Arthur de Sloover and Jacob Anderson have also contributed. Not to forget, Sumit and Nilakanta Sharma have been at their usual best. It has been a proper team performance by the Toofans, with most of their players standing up when their team needs them to be.
Soorma also have goalscorers with as many as 10 players scoring at least a goal each but their biggest strength has been two world class specialists. Harmanpreet Singh had a relatively slow start to the campaign but he has since scored five penalty corner goals. Another important aspect of Harmanpreet's game has been his creative passes from the back, which are effective in breaking down a tough defence.
The other important player has been 37-year-old Vincent Vanasch, clearly this tournament's best goalkeeper. And the best thing about Vanasch is he raises his game a notch in big matches. Soorma will hope that the big man in goal becomes a wall in their quest to become champions.
Gurjant Singh and Prabhjot Singh have also stood up with their work rate and efficiency in the circle. Gurjant scored thrice while Prabhjot has two goals to his name.
Like the previous semifinal, this one is also a tough one to predict but the battle to watch out for is Toofans' free flowing attackers against one of the best goalkeepers in the world.