In a mid-match chat with the broadcaster, Flynn Ogilvie, an Olympic silver medallist who debuted against India 10 years ago in Perth, called for his teammates to be ‘quick in passing’.
He said it in all seriousness as if Australia had been playing at the pace of a passenger train. And it must have made Indian players, eavesdropping as they walked past him into the dressing room for the half-time break, wonder how much quicker could the Aussies still get. It didn’t take long for them to discover.
Australia, by then, were already 2-0 up in the first of the five Test matches in Perth. Minutes into the third quarter, they added two more and made it 4-0. And by the time the full-time hooter sounded, the scoreline read, from India’s perspective, an embarrassing 5-1.
New venue, new match, same old Australia. Approximately 100 days before the two teams meet on the biggest stage of all, in the concluding Group B match of the Paris Olympics, India have been served a reality check.
Tempting as it is, it’s important not to get too driven by the scoreline. The purpose of this tour, after all, is to understand the opponent better. And if playing the five matches gives head coach Craig Fulton enough intel for the Olympics, the results per se become secondary.
And one would expect India, who landed in Perth just a couple of days before Saturday’s match, to get better and at least play the fast, counter-attacking hockey that has become their signature.
However, what the result does reassert is the gulf between the two sides. Fulton now and Graham Reid before him have cited the mental side of things as one of the reasons why India repeatedly crumbled against Australia.
But that’s just one explanation. The other lies in Ogilvie’s half-time comment: quickness. One of the hallmarks of Australia is just how quick they are on transitions. This was seen during the Pro League earlier this year and it was particularly striking on Saturday.
Their crisp, decisive passing thereby transferring the ball from stick to stick at a blinding pace forced the Indian players to step out of their structure. The moment the shape was lost, Australia were wily enough to take advantage of that by playing the ball in the vacant space and building an attack from there at an unrelenting pace.
That’s how their goals came, too. Right from the first, which was a result of mistakes on different parts of the field – starting at the top where Mandeep Singh was dispossessed cheaply, then losing 1v1 battles on the left wing and poor tackling inside the ‘D’.
The goal, scored in the third minute, set the template for the rest of the match. Every time Australia had the ball, they looked in control and imposed themselves. And when India had possession – no matter how briefly – Australia were quick to close down the players. They put pressure on India’s ball-carriers, not allowing them even a second to spot a pass.
Consequently, India never settled into a rhythm. Until the fourth quarter, they didn’t even have a decent shot at goal from open play. Captain Harmanpreet Singh was ineffective from his drag-flicks, let down a couple of times by poor trapping.
Harmanpreet wasn’t the only one who had an off day. Jet-lagged and tired, most of India’s players – be it Manpreet Singh in the midfield, Lalit Upadhyay in the forward line or the two goalkeepers Krishan Pathak and PR Sreejesh – had a below-par outing by their standards.
If one thing was crystal clear from the 5-1 defeat, it was that Hardik Singh remains essential to make India tick. Fulton rested him on Saturday to try out other players and Raheel Mohammed was one of the bright spots.
But without Hardik, India lacked sharpness and energy. He’s the one player who, as he has admitted earlier, likes to do the dirty job: bail out the defence, join the attack, create chances. His presence should shore up the midfield and improve the link-up play with the forward line, which went AWOL on Saturday.
Hardik, however, is just a part of the machinery. Fulton will have to get all 11 pieces to function if India hope to even challenge Australia, let alone beat them. For on Saturday, the Aussies looked a few paces ahead of India. And worryingly for Fulton, they didn’t even seem to go beyond the third gear.
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