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"Unpredictability" has been haunting Indian men's hockey team for quite some time now but that very factor might just act in their favour when the hosts take on Olympic champions and world no.1 Argentina in the semi-finals of the Hockey World League Final tonight.
For any team in world hockey, predicting India's performance is next to impossible. 'Inconsistent' is the perfect word to sum up India. If one day the Indians are brilliant, the very next day they might give a lacklustre performance.
The same topsy-turvy curve is continuing at the ongoing HWL Final also. After a not-so-impressive pool campaign, India not only stunned world no.3 Belgium but all and sundry at the stadium with their spirited show in the quarterfinals.
And this unpredictably about India is something that is troubling the Argentines ahead of Friday’s last-four duel.
"India are a tough team to beat. You can't predict how they will come out in a game and that was visible against Belgium yesterday. They beat the most impressive team of the tournament," Argentina's drag-flick specialist Gonzalo Peillat said after the Los Leones beat England 3-2 in their quarterfinal match at the Kalinga Stadium.
"India are good in counter-attack. So, we have to be very careful," he added.
Argentina, who finished third in Pool A with just one point, scored through field strikes from Lucas Villa (21st minute) and skipper Mattias Paredes (29th), and a penalty stroke conversion by Juan Gillardi (34th) to eke out their first win of the tournament.
Argentina might be the reigning Olympic champions and world’s numero uno team at present, but the Indians have better head-to-head record against them. India and Argentina have so far played 46 games against each other, out of which India have won 26, lost 16 and four ended in a tie.
In fact, India were the only team that defeated Argentina to their way to gold medal triumph in 2016 Olympics. In Rio, the Indians defeated the Los Leones 2-1 in the pool stages.
The Indians witnessed a woeful pool campaign at the start of this tournament. After an impressive 1-1 draw against Australia in their tournament opener, the hosts went from bad to worse, losing 2-3 and 0-2 against England and Germany, respectively. But the much-talked about all-play-quarterfinal format came to India's rescue and the hosts dished out their best hockey when it mattered the most and ended Olympic silver medallists Belgium's winning run.
The Indians played attacking, fast-paced hockey and ticked all boxes against Belgium, stunning them 3-2 in the shoot-out after both were locked at 3-3 at the end of the regulation time.
If their pool campaign was lucklustre, the Indians displayed much-improved show in all departments of the game last night. But it is not as if India didn't create chances in the pool matches, but they lacked in finishing. Even though they fared better against Belgium, the Indian strikers, especially SV Sunil and Mandeep Singh, still need to do plenty of work in their finishing skills. Sunil, in particular, missed two golden opportunities against Belgium and he would be cursing himself for letting the chances slip.
India however cannot afford to commit the same mistakes against an attacking Argentine side, who would be eagerly waiting to pounce on the errors.
Statistically, the Indians had more ball possession and better chances in all their matches so far but stats hardly have significance if the results don't turn up in favour.
India's chief coach Sjoerd Marijne said his wards will have to dish out a similar performance as against Belgium if not better, if they hope to tame Argentina.
However, it remains to be seen how the Indians handle the big match pressure against Argentina, which too had a relatively poor pool campaign before they registered their first win in the quarterfinal on Thursday, just like India did.
Having finished third in the last edition of the tournament in 2015 in Raipur, the Indians also have a chance to go one step up with a win today.
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