A sense of cautious optimism prevails as India wins FIH Series Finals

Captain Manpreet Singh was chosen as the best player of the tournament while young Vivek Sagar received the Best Junior Player award as the Indian men's hockey team ended the Bhubaneswar leg of the FIH Series Finals on a high, beating South Africa by a 5-1 margin in the final. There was little chance of the Indian goalkeepers being chosen for an award simply because they had precious little to do in a tournament where the home side scored 35 goals and conceded just 4 with circle penetrations against being few and far between. The US custodian Jonathan Klages was adjudged to the best goalkeeper while Indian drag-flickers Harmanpreet Singh and Varun Kumar shared the highest goal-scorer award with Semen Matkovsky of Russia. The Indians managed ten shots on goal off thirty-seven circle penetrations and converted three of the five PCs they earned while the South Africans directed seven shots on target from just twelve circle entries but fumbled at the goalmouth once too often. Harmanpreet and Varun were on target with their drag-flicks to put the home team ahead, and a stick check on Birendra Lakra led to a penalty stroke which added to South Africa's woes. Vivek got his name onto the score sheet after half-time, and a superbly executed PC variation was driven home by Varun in the final quarter which snuffed the fight out of the South Africans who kept improving as the match progressed. Richard Pautz had a great chance to score immediately after half-time but sent the ball skyrocketing way over the upright before redeeming himself, somewhat, by scoring his team's only goal with seven minutes left to play. It was a case of too little too late for Tim Drummond and co. as India were five goals ahead by then - and the hosts chose to knock the ball around and play the clock down to prevent the South Africans from inflicting any further damage. Irrespective of the nature of the opposition, a tournament win is always significant in a year where the Indians do not have a lot of international hockey lined up, and nothing bonds a team together like victory does. Graham Reid's side will be up against far more formidable teams in the Olympic qualifiers and getting the best possible combination to click in time for the vital matches will be crucial. The Indian think-tank clearly has a problem of plenty as far as the strikers are concerned, and when Lalit Upadhyay returns to full fitness, it will be interesting to see which players make it to the final squad. The urge to impress a new coach did, possibly, prompt a few of the players to indulge in more individual play than it was necessary.Gurjant Singh replaced an injured Sumit Kumar for the final, and the Indians still have phenomenal talent in the ranks with Dilpreet Singh, Shilanand Lakra, and Armaan Qureshi who will all be competing for a place in the team. Mandeep Singh failed to use his poaching skills to good effect at Bhubaneswar, and the Indian strikers will need to combine a lot better against the top sides. Whether or not the Indians are missing out by deciding not to be part of the elite Pro League remains to be seen, but it will be fair to say that the unit is not as cohesive as it was after the Champions Trophy last year. Yet, the very same group of players who looked all set to scale new heights following their show at Breda, failed to get past the Malaysians at the Asian Games - and despite a decent performance at the Odisha World Cup, they will now be preparing for the Olympic qualifiers, when they could well have been preparing for the Games at Tokyo. Indian hockey has now become synonymous with near-misses - and fans have little choice except to look to the future with a sense of cautious optimism.