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India beat Germany for title

After a break of five years, an Indian captain collected major silverware at an international hockey tournament when Ramandeep Singh accepted the winner's trophy after India defeated Germany in the final of the four-nation hockey tournament in Perth on Sunday.

In a cliffhanger final, India came back from a goal down and went a goal up before Germany drew level with two minutes of play remaining. Then, with 24 seconds remaining before the final went into extra-time, Dhanraj Pillay performed his Indian stick trick to give the side its first international title since beating Germany in the 1995 Azlan Shah final.

The match between the Asian and European champions was hailed as the best exhibition of entertaining hockey ever witnessed in the western Australian capital.

Yet, the manner in which the game began -- especially for India -- would not have indicated such a classic finish. India's game was riddled with mistakes in defence, misunderstanding and mispassing, and they were fortunate to been on an even keel (1-1) when the teams went into the breather.

Had it not been for Indian goalkeeper Jude Menezes's brilliant saves in the first half, the scoreline would have been vastly different.

With five minutes to go for half-time, Jagan Senthil seized on an inaccurate back pass and fed Pillay, whose powerful reverse hit sounded the boards (1-1).

Stunned by this reverse, the Germans came back in the second half determined to move forward and not pass the ball backwards as they were doing in the first half.

This almost pre-determined forward movement of the Germans, played straight into hands of the Indian game plan. It provided the Indian forwards more space to run their counter attacks through, which ultimately was the reason for the Germans' downfall today.

As it is, Germany took the lead in the 20th minute through a field goal by Mathias Witthaun, who finally beat Menezes in the Indian goal.

The German insistence on attack not only did India a favour, but also opened game and contributed to a lively pace right through the second half. This Indian team is now notorious among its opponents for its counter attacks, carried out with almost commando-like precision and pace.

It was one such attack which led to India's penalty-corner in the 22nd minute of the second half. Dilip Tirkey's conversion was neat and accurate (2-1).

Now on the backfoot, the Germans moved headlong into attack, forcing two penalty-corners with no success.

When Bjorn Michel drew level for Germany with two minutes remaining, the game seemed destined to go into extra-time and the golden goal.

However, the Bombay bombshell Pillay had other ideas. A quick break from within the Indian half saw Pillay, Baljit Dhillon and Samir Dad pounce on an under-manned German defence with quick exchange of the ball, resulting in Pillay scoring his second goal to give India victory.

It was a moment to cherish, with Ramandeep giving his victory speech in Punjabi, expressing gratitude to the huge number of Indian supporters who turned out for the final.

Ramandeep acknowledged the fact that the team felt quite at home with the warm sunshine, the constant beating of the drums by Indian supporters, the waving indian flags and frequent chants of ''balle...balle''.

It was as if the entire Indian community had turned out to support the team and it was well worth the effort.

UNI