After getting a huge success in the SAF Games, Chennai, 1995, Dhanraj Pillay made himself ready and prepared for playing in the Olympic Qualifiers, Barcelona, 1995. The Indian team was well composed and had a very good training camp before going to the Qualifiers. The Indian Hockey players were also quite confident of becoming successful to qualify for the Barcelona Olympic. The Indian coach, Cedric D`Souza took five half-backs and six forwards, including Dhanraj Pillay for the qualifiers, whereas the team played in the classical five-forward formation in the SAF Games. However, the classical formation was not taken for the qualifiers, as tightening the midfield was necessary against the European teams.
India played their first match in the Olympic Qualifiers against Great Britain and Dhanraj Pillay had to play a pivotal role in the match, as always. Dhanraj started the match on a good form as he made some quick moves to put pressure on the British players. The other Indian players were trying to play well in the match and India scored its first goal as early as in the 3rd minute, through Sanjeev Kumar`s stick. However, the Great Britain team played better than the Indians in the rest of the first half and got a lead of 3-1 at the break. The second half of the match saw the Indian players playing with more determination and control over the ball and Dhanraj Pillay led a nice fight back for India in the match. He played a vital role in India`s second goal that was scored by Mukesh Kumar. Then, Dhanraj Pillay himself took the initiative and scored a brilliant goal to level the scores. The match ended on a 3-3 draw.
The 3-3 draw against Great Britain, coming from a 1-3 deficit, gave a lot of encouragement and confidence to the Indian players. Dhanraj Pillay was also well determined before playing against the Holland team in the next match of the Olympic qualifiers. The Holland team remained unbeaten against India for the past 10 years till then and Pillay and his companions were eager to break this deadlock. The Indian team started the match on a positive note as Ramandeep Singh scored the first goal for India in the 21st minute. Dhanraj Pillay was instrumental in the goal and the duo of Dhanraj and Mukesh Kumar was causing a lot of difficulties for the Dutch defense. Within a minute, Dhanraj Pillay made a splashing run through the Dutch defense and as one of the Dutch defenders pushed him to stop, India got a penalty stroke. Ramandeep once again successfully sent the ball into the Dutch net for scoring the second goal for India. However, the Holland team somehow managed to score a goal to go to the break trailing by 1-2.
The second half of the match saw a magical display of stick work and skills from Dhanraj Pillay and the Indian team also played with more aggressiveness in this half. Dhanraj Pillay played extremely well in this half and his goal in this half made everyone spellbound. Dhanraj scored the third goal for India and while scoring the goal, he cruised through the Dutch defense to the striking circle, swerved past a defender. Just when the Dutch goalkeeper was trying to cut his space, Dhanraj flicked the ball very cleverly into the other corner. This astonishing goal and his class inside the striking circle created more panic among the Dutch and they freed the other Indian strikers like Mukesh, while trying to stop Dhanraj. Dhanraj Pillai continued his wonderful run in the match and scored yet another goal in the 58th minute of the match. He cleverly picked up a ball reflected from the pads of the Dutch goalkeeper and sent the ball to the net, after dodging past one Dutch defender. Dhanraj Pillay played with extreme mastery in the match. His sense of positioning, no extra seconds on the ball, waiting for the goalkeeper to make the first move before reverse flicking in the ball and, above all, his work with the rest of the team in setting up the goals showed great maturity. India eventually won the match by a huge margin of 4-1.
India then played against Spain in the next match of the Olympic qualifiers and India had to hold on to a goalless draw, as the match was played under terribly cold conditions. Dhanraj Pillay played the match with an injured right hand and as a result, his performance in the match was much below his usual level. However, he recovered from the injury pretty fast and regained his best form in the match against Belarus. India played in the first half of the match on a relaxing mode and it was in the second half, when India made some good and productive moves through Dhanraj Pillay and Mukesh Kumar. India scored its first goal through Pargat Singh`s stick in the 47th minute and Dhanraj scored the second by picking up a ball off the Belarus goalkeeper`s pads.
India appeared in the next match of the Olympic qualifiers against Canada in a must-win situation to qualify for the Olympics. The Indian players got a day`s break before the match and were well rested. Though India started the match on an aggressive mode with Dhanraj Pillay and Mukesh Kumar attacking the Canadian defense several times, the Indian players remained unable to convert the openings. Both Dhanraj and Mukesh missed out some sharp chances in the striking circle in the first few minutes and India scored the first goal in the 11th minute through Gavin Ferreira`s stick. Dhanraj started to come back to his usual form in the second half and India was also looking to be more dangerous in the second half. Dhanraj scored the second goal for India when he picked up a midfield pass, wove in past three defenders, and successfully beat the Canadian goalkeeper. However, though Canadian team came back in the match nicely and scored a goal to cut the deficit to 1-2, that did not cause much harm to India. India won the match by a margin of 2-1 and qualified for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
India then met with the Belgium team in the next match of the qualifiers and India played the match on a cautious note. Dhanraj Pillay made some wonderful moves in the match to keep the Belgium defense under pressure. The Belgium team got the first break through in the match when they scored a goal as early as in the 7th minute of the match. The Belgium team did well to check the quick runs of Dhanraj and Mukesh through their defense and though the Indian duo tried hard, they failed to get rid of their markers. However, the other Indian striker Pargat Singh scored the equaliser soon. Dhanraj Pillay made a great move in the ending part of the first half and as he was pushed by a Belgium defender from behind, India got a penalty stroke. The penalty stroke was successfully materialised by Ramandeep Singh to provide India a 2-1 lead. Though the Belgium team came back nicely in the second half of the match to score the equaliser, Dhanraj Pillay played wonderfully in the half to make sure India win the match with a good margin of 4-2.
The last match of the India in the Olympic qualifiers was against Malaysia. India did qualify for the Atlanta Olympics before that match and the team just needed to relax, win and close the tournament on a winning note. Dhanraj Pillay played in the match in a more relaxed mode and as India had nothing to lose from the match, the match ended as a dull, lifeless 0-0 draw. None of the teams made any productive effort to score a goal in the match and Dhanraj Pillay also played according to India`s game plan.
