India picked up a 3-1 win over Pakistan in their second pool encounter of the Asian Champions Trophy in Muscat on Saturday night, extending their unbeaten run in international hockey against Pakistan to 11 matches, but the talking points of the game were two individual goals of considerable skill from Manpreet Singh and Mandeep Singh.
Manpreet's mazy run
With Pakistan sitting deep inside their half after taking the lead inside 35 seconds, India had to drop wider in an attempt to pry the defence open with variety in points of attack.
Enter captain and midfielder Manpreet.
Picking the ball up in midfield and shrugging off his opposite number Muhammad Rizwan, Manpreet dropped his shoulders and began to slalom through the middle of the pitch. He had two Pakistan defenders within sight and eliminated them with a feint that threw them off balance. Running at high speed now, he found himself entering the Pakistan circle and had goalkeeper Imran Butt within his sights, looking to close the angle for Mandeep who was right beside him and ready to receive a pass. Manpreet flicked the ball in the narrowest of gaps between Imran and Mandeep instead.
1-1. Just like that.
Mandeep's street smarts
At half time, India coach Harendra Singh would tell the broadcasters that his team was doing far too much of running, and all he wanted them to do was to keep it simple when in sight of goal.
Two minutes into the third quarter, Akashdeep Singh slipped a neat ball through for Mandeep and then continued his run down the left towards the post. Mandeep had his back to the goal, hemmed in on both sides by Pakistan defenders. You could sense he wanted room to manoeuvre his body and either pass or shoot.
Nimble of foot and supple of wrist, he manufactured a dink between his legs, taking a punt on Imran not expecting this to happen. The ball sped off his stick, through an airborne Mandeep, took a deflection off Imran and snuck into his near corner.
It was the hockey equivalent of being nutmegged by a backheel -- and just as improbable.