India skipper Dhanraj Pillay and chief coach Rajinder Singh described India's 7-4 victory against Pakistan at Amstelveen, near Amsterdam, in the 25th Champions Trophy tournament on Friday night as one of the best.

"In my 13 years with the Indian team, I cannot recall a match in which we have scored seven goals and won," Pillay said. "Yes, I would rate this as one of my best victories."

Rajinder Singh said: "After our loss to the Netherlands on the first day, our boys took some time to recover psychologically. But I was confident that we had the ability to take on and beat Pakistan since we have won four of the last six matches with them. I think our boys showed what they are capable of."

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Both Pillay and Singh heaped praise on 20-year-old defender Jugraj Singh for his performance. Jugraj was specifically assigned to block Pakistan's penalty-corner specialist Sohail Abbas by charging straight at him.

"It was our strategy and it worked today," said Jugraj, whose idol, incidentally, is Abbas himself, apart from Holland's Bram Lomans.

Regarding the incident three minutes from close when the rival teams got into an altercation after Jugraj ran into Saqlain Mohammad, Pillay said: "I told the boys not to react to the Pakistani players because just three minutes were left and we didn't want to create a problem. There was no fight, just an argument."

Pillay said any match with Pakistan was bound to be emotional. "Even today, when we trailed 2-4, I knew we were still in with a chance.

"I am extremely happy for myself, my team, and, of course, my country, that we beat our arch-rivals so convincingly.

"In fact, I began my international career here at the Wagener Stadium in 1990, and in my first match, we beat Pakistan 4-0.

"Now, 13 years later, it is certainly a great feeling."

Pakistan team coach Tahir Zaman blamed his forwards for playing an individualistic game, especially in the second half. "My boys became complacent and got carried away by their emotions when we were leading 4-2. I kept pleading with them to keep their emotions in check and play a combined game.

"But somehow, they carried on with their individual game."

Further, he attributed the team's loss to "poor goalkeeping" by Ahmad Alam.

Skipper Nadeem Ahmad, who had an outstanding game, felt that Pakistan lost the match when the forwards failed to fall back and assist the defence.

PTI