India, Aug. 19 -- India versus Pakistan in hockey may have increasingly ceased to be a rivalry, going strictly by the term's definition and the predictability of the eventual outcome. What it still does often manage to deliver, however, is goals. And a fair few of them.

Eight is what the Men's World Cup clash at the Wagener Hockey Stadium in Amstelveen, Netherlands, brought along on Wednesday. That goal volume was exactly the same as the last time the two neighbours met in the Pro League in June (7-1 India), and one better than the fixture before that (4-3 India).

Also better, for a change, was the competitiveness. India won like they were expected to, and with it advanced to the next stage of this new-format World Cup. But in their 5-3...