History was against the Men In Blue. Only once before in World Cup history had they enjoyed a seven-goal win; Ghana in 1975. And, no, it was important to top the pool as opposed to featuring in the cross-overs. Finish second and New Zealand lay in wait. Beat them and the potential reward? Old friends, Belgium, in the last eight. Finish first? Potentially, a more manageable-looking fixture, at least on paper, against Germany, plus the added carrot of a five-day rest. There was a very real feeling of jeopardy, almost as if their medium-term future in the competition depended on their next 60 minutes.
From the way India began the match, you could immediately see what they were after. Goals. Lots of them. Twice in the opening minutes, Akashdeep Singh engineered chances. There was a clear urgency about their play but they couldn't marry intent with execution. At one point in the first quarter, Manpreet Singh tried a Hail Mary from inside his own half. It sailed over the attacker's head and almost hit the railing behind the goal without bouncing. When they did have a clear sight on goal, goalkeeper Toby Reynolds-Cotterill, who has the experience of being called up for Great Britain at the senior level, saved with minimal fuss.
The hosts did belatedly get on the score-sheet before multiplying it with more than 30 minutes to play. But the drama on this slightly nippy Thursday night was just getting started. Before the tournament began, Wales, whose players self-fund at least half of all hockey-related trips, had vowed to not be also-rans. They showed their capacity by levelling the score to pretty much kill India's chances of advancing directly.
While the visitors, especially Reynolds-Cotteriil, equipped themselves well, the hosts did not have a good day. They allowed scoreboard pressure to play with their minds pretty much from pushback.
At half-time, coach Graham Reid was calling for some patience. His plea was sandwiched by multiple displays of spells where they just threw bodies forward without a proper attacking game plan. It offered a sharp contrast to what Netherlands had done earlier in the day en route to a World Cup record 14-0 defeat of Chile. They hardly got out of second gear. India seemed to be playing the entire match with the handbrake off. They almost tried to will the ball inside the goal. The net effect was the fluidity they had shown against England was conspicuous by its absence. "We played well in patches," Reid said after the match. While the positive is the number of circle entries they eventually created, the negative was the way in which they tried to take the chances they created. "Didn't execute them properly," the Australian added. "We crowded the circle, got in each other's way a little bit."
Ultimately, some of the pressure finally paid off as they scored two more to win the match 4-2.