IANS

New Delhi, Feb 12: India's national hockey coach Harendra Singh says that all pre-match strategy goes for a toss as players get emotionally keyed up when they play Pakistan and they should check their feelings when they take on the neighbours in their opening World Cup game Feb 28.

Harendra told reporters here Thursday that in all the outings with Pakistan in recent times the Indian players were unable to carry out their pre-determined tactics as they were so surcharged about winning the match instead of treating it as any other game.

The national coach pointed out that though Pakistan beat India in most of their recent clashes, including the Champions Challenge semi-final in Argentina, the margin of their victories was narrow.

"When India and Pakistan play, it boils down to controlling emotion. In the last few matches we have seen the players getting deflected from the pre-planned strategy and turning individualistic, thus allowing the emotions to get better of them," Harendra said.

"Now we have told the players that they should stay cool and follow the strategy planned even when they are down. In the last couple of years, the winning margin between the two teams has narrowed," he said.

"We have learnt from our mistakes in Argentina and we should not be repating them."

Harendra, however, said the players have been told to take Pakistan just as another team.

"We are not focussing on one match. There are some top teams in our Group and we will have to play well in all the matches. The team has shown lot of improvement under Spanish coach Jose Brasa. The players have got good exposure overseas."

Asked whether lack of warm up matches will affect the chances of the team, Harendra said: "Practice matches before any big tournament help the team. In the last 15 months we have played 48 matches, so we cannot complain. We have played against good teams

and tried out various combinations keeping the World Cup in mind.

"The team is in good shape. We have three drag flickers in the squad and it reflects our strength. We are aiming for a semi-final spot and for that we have to to do well in group stage."