All the excitement came down to the last seven seconds as the Indian hockey team's perennial problem of conceding late goals left them with a disappointing 2-2 draw against a sloppy Pakistan in their Commonwealth Games opener here on Saturday.
A penalty corner earned in the last seven seconds, thought to be saved when taken, reinstated after an appeal by Pakistan, proved to be India's undoing in what was a lacklustre clash for most part.
Dilpreet Singh (13th minute), Harmanpreet Singh (19th minute) put India ahead before Irfan Junior (38th minute) and Mubashar Ali (59th minute) drew parity and helped their team claim moral victory.
"We were not happy with the performance. We wanted to win this game." said a frustrated Indian defender Rupinder Pal Singh after the match.
On the field, India dominated quite clearly. Forward Dilpreet opened the scoring in the first quarter, helping the last edition silver-medallists end the first 15 minutes with a 1-0 lead.
In the second quarter, Harmanpreet Singh converted the second of the two penalty corner chances he got to put India in control.
The competitive edge missing from their game in the first half, the Pakistani team was pulled back into the game by forward Mohammed Irfan Junior, who scored a field goal to narrow the gap between the two sides.
Pakistan turned on the intensity in the final minutes and with seven seconds left on the clock, Pakistan earned a penalty corner, causing some anxiety in the Indian camp, and the old fears turned out to be true.
The Indians ended up conceding the dreaded goal to let slip what should have been a comfortable win.