Sreejesh, an artist at his best

It seems PR Sreejesh has grown an extra pair of limbs in Paris. Or perhaps extended the existing ones. Or maybe both.
How can you otherwise explain how the goalkeeper pulled off the number of saves he did, leaping, stretching, performing full splits, to save the Indian men’s hockey team on a day when they were tested to the hilt, 10 men against Great Britain’s 11 for more than half the game, guiding them to the semi-finals of the Paris Olympics.
Harmanpreet Singh’s side suffered a huge jolt when defender and primary first rusher Amit Rohidas was shown the red card – a rarity in hockey – in the 17th minute of the quarter-final against Great Britain. That meant India were especially a man less in the back line, and the burden of defence fell on Sreejesh.
For the next 43 minutes, British forwards unleashed attack after attack with the India goalkeeper blocking the hits with his feet, shin, chest and hands, basically whichever way he could, to safeguard the Indian goal.
Barring one blip in the 27th minute when Lee Morton equalised, Sreejesh made sure India conceded no more goals despite the relentless pressure, thwarting seven of the eight field goal attempts that came directly at him, besides all four penalty corners.
In the shootout where Harmanpreet, Sukhjeet Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay and Raj Kumar Pal converted, Sreejesh, the ‘great wall of India’ again came to India’s rescue in the 4-2 shootout win after the match had ended 1-1.
While James Albery and Zach Wallace converted, Sreejesh first rushed towards Conor Williamson, and under pressure he went off target. A brilliant save by Sreejesh off Philip Roper then helped secure a shootout win for India that will be remembered for long.
“Sreejesh is a legend, an inspiration not only to the goalkeeping fraternity but to all youngsters who want to take up goalkeeping. He is an artist at his best,” says former India goalkeeper Ashish Ballal, who is best remembered for his shootout heroics that helped India beat South Korea in the final at Bangkok in 1998, ending a 32-year wait for Asian Games gold.
“Today it was the opposition versus Sreejesh. Playing against such a strong team with 10 men, it is because the team had Sreejesh that the confidence level of the rest of the defenders shot up. Some of the saves he made were just spectacular.”
Having announced that this Olympics would be his last tournament, the 36-year-old is giving it his all, using all his experience and energy to perform at a great level match after match in Paris, not just in the quarter-final.
If not for the four-time Olympian, the results of all the five matches in Pool B could have been different. Against New Zealand and Argentina too it had come to down to Sreejesh’s saves, securing a narrow win and a draw respectively. While India beat Ireland easily, it was again the man from Kerala who had to raise his game against Belgium and Australia, beating the latter at the Olympics for the first time in 52 years.
The magnitude of Sreejesh’s match-winning saves on Sunday were magnified when not just the India players but South Africa chief coach Craig Fulton too – not known to show emotion on the pitch – ecstatically hugged Sreejesh and rolled on the pitch, in tears of joy.
“The agility he has shown has been eye-catching, especially while making a save, backing it up immediately with another as Britain attacked,” adds Ballal.
“The experience, quality and game awareness he has showed is fantastic. I am a big fan of Sreejesh. He is really playing at his best. His presence itself is a big threat to the opposition.”
Sreejesh has bigger goals ahead. Before the Olympics he talked about changing the colour of the medal from bronze (in Tokyo). As he walks into the sunset of his career, how about the medal that shines the most?