Men's Hockey World Cup 2018: India vs South Africa - Preview, telecast, date, start time and where to watch online
The 14th edition of the Men's Hockey World Cup will begin on Wednesday with two matches involving the teams from Pool C. While Belgium take on Canada in the opener, hosts India will lock horns with South Africa in the second encounter.
The South Africans who are ranked 15th as per the FIH rankings ended up 11th in the previous edition of the World Cup, with their best-ever performances being a couple of tenth-place finishes at Sydney in 1994 and Delhi in 2010.
Harendra Singh's fifth-ranked Indians will be hoping for a relatively easy encounter to settle into the tournament - but history, both recent and remote, bears witness to the fact that India's past record against the African champions has not been particularly impressive.
At the 1994 World Cup at Sydney, the South Africans held the Indians to a 2-2 draw, while Ian Symons scored late to cancel out Dileep Tirkey's first-half goal with the final scoreline reading 1-1 at the 2006 edition of the tournament in Monchengladbach.
Harendra was the assistant to Jose Brasa when the South Africans held India to a 3-3 draw in the Delhi World Cup in 2010 and will be hoping for a significantly better result from his present wards.
The Indians faced South Africa in an effort to avoid the wooden spoon at the London Olympics but Micheal Nobbs' side finished rock bottom after losing 2-3.
Tim Drummond who will captain his side at Bhubaneswar scored for the South Africans at London in 2012 but will be aware that handling Manpreet Singh and co. will be a different proposition altogether.
So, can the Indians expect an easier outing against South Africa this time around?
Sportskeeda sought the opinion of former India goalkeeper Ashish Ballal, who was the architect of India's victory in the Bangkok Asian Games of 1998, and Jude Felix, former India captain who is now the Chief Coach of the Indian Juniors.
The hero of the 1998 final, who stepped out and saved the vital penalties against South Korea at Bangkok, has never believed in holding back, and suggested strongly that the Indians are now a much better team.
"India is a vastly improved side since the (2012) Olympics. South Africa is a good team but due to the current scoring prowess of Team India, and the domination they play with, India should beat South Africa convincingly with a scoreline of around 3-1."
Jude Felix concurs and stresses that the Indians should prevail considering the current ranking of the South Africans.
"India will get through this game with all or most players playing on a scale higher than 5, with 10 being the maximum, keeping in mind that we are playing in front of the home crowd who are backing you and playing a team which is much lower ranked."
A capacity crowd at the Kalinga Stadium will cheer the home team on, but opening matches are tricky, just as they are vital in setting the tone for the rest of the tournament, and the Indians will be looking to come away with full points.
Here is how you can follow the action:
Event: Men's Hockey World Cup 2018
Venue: Bhubaneswar, India
Date: 28 November 2018
Time: 7:00 pm Indian Standard Time (IST)
Telecast:
India: Star Sports, Star Sports HD
UK: BT Sport
Australia: Fox Sports
Spain: Eurosport
New Zealand: Sky Sports (NZ)
Argentina: ESPN
South Africa: SuperSport
Live Streaming: Hotstar, FIH Official Youtube Channel
Live Updates: Sportskeeda
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