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Penalty corners throughout the match.
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History points to the Indian men’s hockey team as it clinched its first gold in the quadrangular showpiece today to end Australia’s dominance in the Commonwealth Games. India has never won gold in six editions of the Commonwealth Games. The two silver medals in the 2010 and 2014 editions are the best since hockey was added to the Games in 1998.
Commonwealth Games 2022 – full coverage , deep in , India Focus , off the ground , in pictures , medal tally
In contrast, world No. 1 Australia has been the most impressive team at the Commonwealth Games, winning all six golds so far.
Therefore, finishing on top of the podium by surpassing the mighty Kookaburras will surely be a long task for India and they will have to play out of their skin to achieve the elusive feat.
But the historic bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics after a gap of 41 years has instilled a high level of confidence among the Indian players.
Already assured of a silver, a gold from here will be on the cake for the Indians and the Manpreet Singh-led side would not want to miss such an opportunity.
But to achieve this, the Indians will have to improvise in every way as the Aussies will not be able to pounce on their opponents at any point.
Both India and Australia registered equal 3-2 wins over South Africa and hosts England to reach the final.
India’s backline, led by always-reliable mentor PR Sreejesh, will have to be on its toes and could risk making silly mistakes as the Australians are expected to exert relentless pressure.
India’s midfield under captain Manpreet is in scintillating form with stellar performances from Hardik Singh and Neelkant Sharma.
But it is the forwardline that has been the most influential. Mandeep Singh has been phenomenal with his scintillating runs and dribbling skills inside D, while Akashdeep Singh has also performed brilliantly.
The likes of Shamsher Singh, Lalit Upadhyay, Gurjant Singh and Abhishek have also looked dangerous in the tournament so far.
One area that head coach Graham Reid will be concerned about is penalty corner execution as India have converted just one in seven against South Africa despite having good dragflickers like Harmanpreet, Varun Kumar, Jugraj Singh and Rohidas.
In fact, the reason for India’s poor PC conversion rate on Saturday was South African goalkeeper Govan Jones, who made splendid saves on several occasions to deny Harmanpreet & Co.
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