India, July 31 -- Harmanpreet Singh's eyes were fixated at the top of the D where Manpreet Singh was waiting with a horizontal reverse stick. A hard and accurate push from Hardik Singh in the corner, a perfect stop by Manpreet and the India skipper's powerful flick thudded on to the lower board of the goal.The penalty corner (PC) specialist had scored his second of the day, enough to hand the Indian hockey team a 2-0 win over Ireland in Pool B on Tuesday.In the three matches so far at the Paris Olympics, India's attacking midfielders and forwards have done well to earn 24 PC opportunities which amounts to eight per game. But the worrying statistic shows that they have converted only three of them, one per match.So far, those three PC goals have been sufficient against lower ranked opponents - a close 3-2 win against No.10 New Zealand, a 1-1 draw against No.7 Argentina and a 2-0 win against No.11 Ireland that took them to the quarter-finals. But will it be enough against the heavyweights as India face reigning champions Belgium on Thursday and powerhouse Australia on Friday?"What you see in general across matches is that PC conversion is not that high and that is all because of first runners," said former India coach Sjoerd Marijne. "PC defence is becoming better and better so it is very difficult to score off PCs. Drag-flickers will have to come up with other ideas, different angles to score."Once responsible for almost half of the goals scored in a tournament, PC conversion rate has gone down over the years. "One in three used to be the standard but not anymore," former India coach Graham Reid had said in an earlier interview.Due to better and more advanced protective equipment, runners, especially the first one, have found that extra courage and confidence to rush hard and fast into the drag-flicker, unafraid of taking the hit. In addition, rushers are running in faster than ever before as witnessed in Paris, barely giving the drag-flicker any time or room to scoop the ball through.Not just India, but others too have struggled to score from PCs. While world No.2 Netherlands have scored just five out of 24, world No.4 Australia managed just two goals out of 16 from their first three matches. World No.1 Belgium, on the other hand, had scored only two out of 11 from their first two games."Of course, there is room for improvement, but India have delivered with winning goals coming from PCs," said former India drag-flicker and Olympic bronze medallist Rupinder Pal Singh. "I am sure the team will perform better in the coming matches with conversion rate getting better. Everyone knows India's main drag-flicker is Harmanpreet. Opponents are preparing accordingly on how to stop him.

"Rupinder hit the bull's eye. Out of the 24 PCs, 18 have been taken by Harmanpreet, converting two, as the other two flickers - Amit Rohidas and Sanjay - simply don't match up to the quality and class of the India skipper. Though Rohidas has been taking drag-flicks for years, he has never been a regular while Sanjay - a surprise pick for Paris - has only scored two goals in 38 matches in the India jersey.In Paris, Rohidas has taken three PCs in as many games while Sanjay has taken only one with both converting none. However, experts argue that shouldn't be a worry for India."In Belgium, Alexander Hendrickx gets almost every PC but yes, it is an advantage to have others like Tom Boon and Loick Luypert," Marijne explained. "But Netherlands also only have one (Jip Janssen). So, I don't think there's extra pressure on Harmanpreet. He has learnt to deal with these kinds of things."It was Boon's hat-trick on Tuesday that helped Belgium crush Australia 6-2 on Tuesday in what was a repeat of Tokyo 2020's final. It once again emphasised that conversion rates may have gone down, but the drag-flick is still the go-to weapon in crunch situations, clearly determining the winner.The responsibility of converting from the short corner will once again fall on the shoulders of Harmanpreet in the coming week but his former teammate says the India skipper is not worried, rather enjoying his role."As far as I know him, and I know him well, he is not someone who takes pressure," said Rupinder. "He enjoys it, he enjoys taking PCs single handedly. Against Argentina, India got 3-4 continuous PCs at the end, and he was taking all of them. It shows he is confident, and the team believes in him. Because of that, was he able to score in that pressure situation."He just needs to follow the programme and process he believes in because drag-flick is such a skill that if you're caught in two minds, you won't be able to execute it. He should just focus on his plans, keep it in his mind and fulfill them.

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