Hockey: Favourites India take on perennial rivals Pakistan in Asia Cup

GUWAHATI: 5-1. 3-2. 3-2. 7-1. 6-1. The above-mentioned sequence of numbers isn’t a failed mathematician’s approach to try and decode the Fibonacci series. It’s the scorelines of the last five encounters between India and Pakistan in hockey. India has scored 24 and conceded seven in the last 300 minutes of action. The Green Shirts, may have, at one point of time, been India’s primary nemesis. There was a period in the early and middle naughties when India couldn’t buy a win. Things, though, have tilted in India’s favour since that infamous night in Bhubaneswar in 2014.

The one-sided nature of recent contests has lessened the hype but there is still considerable intrigue around their group match at the ongoing Asia Cup in Dhaka on Sunday. For starters, it’s Marijne Sjoerd’s first against Pakistan as India coach. Roelant Oltmans did not deliver India many first-place finishes but he routinely gave India thumping wins against their neighbours. So does Sjoerd feel under any sort of pressure to continue that trend? “Well... I am excited like I am for every match,” he told Express. “This is just another match for us and that’s how we want to approach it.”

The Men in Blue have already qualified for the second round but there is an incentive for them to go for broke. A win by a huge margin, coupled with the expected Japanese glut of goals against Bangladesh, might mean Pakistan exit. The Dutch coach, though, wants to focus on India alone. “Everything is about our own performances and it doesn’t matter who our opponents are.”

India’s performances have been rather good so far — scored 12, conceded one — but penalty-corner conversion continues to be a problem. “We are working hard on that,” Sjoerd says. “I have confidence in our drag-flickers.” Will a once proud hockey nation rouse itself up or will the pattern continue? We will know the answer in a few hours from now.