Hockey high in Chennai!

The Indian team celebrate after winning the Asia Cup in Chennai in 2007. PIC/GETTY IMAGES

International hockey returns to Chennai after 15 years with the seventh edition of the Asian Champions Trophy (ACT) to be held at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium in Egmore from August 3 to 12.

India have done well in the ACT, having won it thrice (2011 in China, 2016 in Malaysia and joint-winners with Pakistan in 2018 in Oman) so far. And going by the current FIH rankings, India (World No. 4) are positioned a lot higher than any of the other five participating teams - South Korea (9), Malaysia (11), Pakistan (16), Japan (19) and China (24).

The timing of this tournament is crucial, considering it's a little over a month before the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, (September 23 to October 8), where a gold medal offers a direct berth to the all-important 2024 Paris Olympics. Besides rankings, the fact that India did brilliantly the last time they played an international hockey tournament in Chennai, is another positive. Here's how India achieved that hockey high in Chennai.

There were 10 teams at the 2007 Asia Cup, with Malaysia, Japan, Pakistan, Singapore and Hong Kong placed in Group 'A'. And India, South Korea, China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Thailand in Group 'B'.

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India seemed rusty to begin with, beating China 1-0. The all-important strike coming off their ever so dependable deep defender Dilip Tirkey, who is currently the President of Hockey India. Then Head Coach Joaquim Carvalho had admitted to mid-day that it was a slow start by his team, but promised a lot of goals as the tournament progressed. And right enough his boys delivered. India beat Sri Lanka 20-0, South Korea 3-2 and Thailand 16-0 to top the group and qualify for the semi-finals. Here too, it was a lop-sided affair with India beating Japan 4-1. Interestingly, the final against South Korea had promised to be a tough one given both teams had played out a close encounter previously in the league stages. However, that was far from what actually happened. The Indians routed the Koreans 7-2 with goalkeeper Baljit Singh winning the Player of the Match award. "This is one of the happiest days of my life," Baljit had told mid-day. Later, there were reports that some of the Korean players were down with a stomach bug and that's the reason they lost by such a huge margin. However, this did not take away any of the sheen from a famous title win that was achieved by the Indians with some fine teamwork and vociferous crowd support. This time round too, Team India, led by Harmanpreet Singh, will be hoping for similar crowd support when they play in Chennai this August, and for history to repeat itself with another gold medal-winning show.