GREAT BARRIER BREACHED
Rani Rampal and Savita Punia recall how 2016 Rio losses inspired Tokyo win
The wait was agonising. India skipper Rani Rampal’s gaze was nervously fixed on the scoreboard. Australia had sought a video referral for a penalty corner in the dying moments of the game. Goalkeeper Savita Punia came behind the post and took a sip of water. Until then, she had shown great anticipation and skill to stop Australia in penalty corners, to defend a 1-0 lead for 55 minutes. Officials checked and re-checked the video.
Australia got the penalty corner, in fact two in a row. But Punia was the wall that ensured Australia did not deny India the victory. As the team marched into the semi-finals of an Olympics for the first time on Monday, Punia and Rampal hugged and walked arm-in-arm. Together they had endured the heartbreak of the Rio Olympics, where India finished 12th.
“It is a very big moment for me,” said an exhausted but relieved Punia. “I was a bit disappointed with the last match (India beat South Africa 4-3 after their rivals equalised thrice). We decided, like we did against Ireland, that even if we have just a one goal lead, I just have to stay calm at the back and not panic.
Eight members from the Rio Olympics squad are part of the Tokyo campaign. For them, victory over Australia and reaching the semi-final is vindication.
“When we finished 12th in Rio, it was a very upsetting period for us,” recalled skipper Rampal. “We didn’t even want to tell anyone that we went to the Olympics. So you can imagine how bad the feeling was. In Tokyo we came with a different mindset. We told ourselves that Rio was our first Olympics and here we can accomplish something. The coaches made us believe we could do it.”
After Rio India won the 2016 Asian Champions Trophy, 2017 Asia Cup, and silver at the 2018 Asian Games. A quarterfinal finish at the 2018 World Cup added to their confidence.
Punia, 31, is the senior most in the women’s team and key to the team’s success here. Her first big moment was winning bronze at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games. At the FIH Hockey World League in Belgium in 2015, she emerged a quality goal-keeper with saves against Japan that saw India qualify for the Rio Olympics.
“It is not a surprise for us (show against Australia) because we deserved it,” Punia said. “We worked as a team and that was reflected in the match. They were 60 minutes of do-or-die.”
Things had not started the way India would have hoped for. They had lost the first three matches, to Netherlands (1-5), Germany (0-2) and Great Britain (1-4). Their hope was flickering.
“We played well in the first half against Netherlands and that gave us a lot of confidence that we can do better,” said Rampal. “After the match against Great Britain everyone was crying because we did not follow the plan. We were not upset so much with the result but that we did not execute.”
When they finally made it through to the quarter-final, the team was keen to play Australia. “We know we can play our game against Australia. They give us the space and today we took full advantage of that,” Rampal said.
“We helped each other. If the ball went loose, it didn’t matter, we tackled again. We were ready to tackle again and again.”
In the last quarter, it boiled down to who handled pressure better and Australia wilted as the match drew towards a close. “The way Australia had pressure they had to score, we had pressure to stay calm,” said Punia. “If we stay calm, then the game will go fine but if we were impulsive, there will be mistakes.”
Even when they defeated South Africa, Coach Sjoerd Marijne had spoken about the team holding on to the ball for a long time and not making the right decisions. They scraped past South Africa in the last pool match, in a must-win game.
“After we got the goal in the first quarter we were like “we are not going to play defensive hockey and we have to go for the second goal,” Rampal said. “Defensively we have to play in a pack.”
What was also key to the victory was Gurjit Kaur’s drag flick.
“My finish was very good,” said Gurjit. “By the end of the match we had nothing left in us,” said Gurjit, who is a product of the Shahbad Hockey Academy where Rampal also learnt the game.
Avishek Roy HT In Tokyo