Champions Trophy: Is Indian hockey's latest batch the best in a long while?

The Champions Trophy saw India display flair and tenacity in plenty - with a homegrown coach in charge.

Underdog spirit evokes a strange sense of oneness among watchers of sport. And an underdog victory generally translates into a feat befitting the very acme of sporting romanticism. An underdog defeat, on the other hand, mostly sparks a sad consternation, “they-surely-deserved-better” stuff. A rare, brilliantly engrossing exhibit last Sunday managed to simultaneously capture these dualities.
 
Russia withstood a pass assault — 1,114 genteel ones, to be precise — by Spain’s latest troop of twinkle-toed danseurs and eventually prevailed on penalty kicks in the football World Cup. In Champions Trophy hockey, India ran Australia ragged with a speed and skill