Ramblings of a maverick

Dec 16, 2018 After the one-sided Bronze medal match that brought a sense of relief to one and all when the final whistle was blown, the stadium was packed to the rafters with the spectators overflowing onto the aisles, steps and pathways. And it was not without reason. The World Cup Hockey 2018 final promised a methodical technical hockey battle between the three-time Champions, Netherlands and first-time finalist, Belgium. The Netherlands were the first on the pitch with a purposeful practice session, well ahead of the Red Lions who followed a few minutes later. Given that the Netherlands came out of a tiring but exhilarating semi final that was resolved via the sudden death, I suspect that they wanted to swipe the highs of the previous night and start with a fresh page. The Red Lions were used to many a final and stacked quite a bit of 'silver'ware. Meanwhile, the crowd snapped up glimpses of their Cricketing hero, Sachin Tendulkar in the glass clad VIP bo

    Less than 18 hours prior, the Australian team gave it all on the pitch only to wind up second best on the night in a pulsating & non-stop action packed semi-final game against Netherlands that would have drained out any team, physically and perhaps mentally as well. However, if you were at the stadium around 3.30 pm on Sunday, Dec 16th, you would be excused if you thought it was the backup  Australian team that showed up. A lot of friendly banter, hand locks , shoulder bumps and even sending in a plastic rugby ball into the stands for light hearted exchange showed no signs of any carry over effects from the previous night. Boy, was the Australian team relaxed with the medal on the line ? They absolutely were not visibly stressed and showed up on the pitch to just enjoy and play hockey, with all seriousness but without the tension.  I think this showed for the next 84 minutes of the game that they were clinical but mentally relaxed and that saw them school England thoroughly,

         Saturday, Dec 15 is going to be etched in the permanent memory of die-hard Hockey  enthusiasts. We were amongst the fortunate ones who got to watch the 2nd semi final involving the Netherlands and Australia played before a widely neutral but very passionate and knowledgeable 15,000 fans at the  Kalinga Hockey Stadium, Bhubaneswar.         While the game started off with Australia asking all the questions in the first few minutes of the exchanges, the Netherlands were made to wait. In previous games, I felt the Netherlands had just two ploys on hand - firstly, tackle and defend as if your life depended on it and secondly, spring to life with counter attacks. Somewhere, in the short journey between the Mayfair Lagoon where the team is based and the Kalinga Hockey Stadium, a third strategy was seemingly added for today's game; attack at will .         Hardly had all the countdowns and the noisy DJs settled down, the Aussies swarmed all over the Dutch citadel with many a