The green-shirts recovered from two goals deficit to scare a better Australian side before they gave up in the extra time to concede 3-2 defeat and subsequently fourth place in the six-nation Sultan of Johor Cup on Sunday Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
Australia, who defeated Pakistan earlier in pool matches by a huge margin of 5-1, found the green- shirts a different side in the classification match for third spot on the podium.
Australia raced to a 2-0 lead in the first half when Cassey Hammond found himself in the centre of the semi circle with just the goalkeeper Mazhar Abbas to beat in the 9th minute.
He duly tucked the ball away for the opening goal. Two minutes later the Australians took a firm grip on the match when skipper Dylan Wotherspoon ran into the semi circle from the left and beat Mazhar with an angled shot.
Pakistan got an opportunity to reduce arrears in the 23rd minute when they earned their first penalty corner of the match. But it was poorly executed and failed to find the net.
But after poor showings in the first half, Pakistani players displayed some attacking game, which helped them create more opportunities to strike at the Australian post.
The revised strategy in the second half was rewarded when Mohamed Irfan managed to pull a goal back in the 49th minute, which gave much needed confidence to the struggling team.
Rizwan Ali levelled the score when he produced the equaliser in the 66th minute before the end of the regulation time.
However, Australians eventually won the third place play-off match when Jayshaan Randhawa scored with two minutes remaining in the first half of the extra time. Meanwhile, in the final, India after staying on top of the table throughout the tournament, wentd down against Germany in the summit clash. Germany recored a 3-2 triumph to claim the event's title.
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