Islahuddin, arguably one of the greatest wingers the sport has seen, rattled off any number of reasons why it would be Pakistan versus India in the final. The last time the neighbours met in the competition was in 1990 at Beijing when Pakistan came through 3-2, and before that, in 1982 at Delhi where they won 7-1. Islah was apologetic at the very mention of the 1982 final.

``I think, we had a great team with Hassan Sardar and Manzoor in our ranks. Poor Negi, your goalkeeper. He was unnecessarily blamed for that defeat. Nobody (in India) gave credit to Pakistan's performance on that day,'' he recalled.

Coincidentally, the Indian goalkeeper of the '82 Asiad, Mir Ranjan Negi is currently the assistant coach, and if the twoneighbours make it to the final, then the Mumbai Customs officer would know best the kind of pressure players would be under. Islah is here as a commentator, and at every meeting in the past 10 days, he kept repeating: ``Inshallah, hum milenge final me (God willing, we will meet in the final)."

He is not the only one who has been chanting the mantra. Just about everybody here is praying for a Pakistan-India clash, though it would provide much fodder to the local newspapers which have been scribbling some irresponsible stuff, linking any meeting between the two countries in every sport here to the wars that they have fought over the Kashmir issue.

Politics apart, Pakistan need to really lift their game to beat Korea tomorrow. After all, the Koreans won 4-3 when the teams met in the recent Champions Trophy at Lahore, and the Pakistanis would be going all out to erase the bitter memories of that defeat on home grounds.

By all accounts, the Pakistan team here does not compare well with the earlierones, though they have some talented players in their ranks.

Islah stoutly defended the sacking of senior players like Shahbaz Ahmed and Tahir Zaman with whom he had a handful of problems at the Utrecht World Cup this summer.

As the team manager then, Islah was often at logger-heads with these star players, and the in-team controversies snowballed into a repeat of 1996 episode when Shahbaz was first kicked out of the team, but made a last minute entry at the Olympics.

``All that is in the past, and the present team is full of talent, and if we keep attacking the Koreans, we should win the semi-finals. In this respect, I feel India should have it easy against Japan. So, Inshallah, we will meet each other in the final,'' he commented.

If the Pakistanis are expecting a difficult match, then India will surely have so much more a comfortable ride to the final. Even making allowance for India's infamous inconsistency, one cannot visualise this team losing to Japan. As Ajit Pal Singh, the captain of the 1975World Cup winning team, said last night, if India cannot beat Japan on the morrow, then ``we might as well stop playing hockey''.

India are likely to field the same starting eleven as they did against Korea in the league match, with Sandeep Somesh yet again manning the centre-half position, and in any case, Thirumalvalavan is out for the count with a fractured nose.