Aspiring youngster Haseem Khan struck a brace of field goals as Pakistan stormed into the semi-final of 8th Asia Cup Hockey Tournament from group B with a thrilling 3-2 victory against defending India at Wisma Belia Kuantan Hockey Stadium on Sunday.
Pakistan produced a sterling performance under pressure in a tense match as they came from a goal down and one goal disallowed to record a badly needed win in the continental competition.
The match was marred by heavy rains which forced the organisers to suspend the match in 46th minutes which resumed after 45 minutes break under dazzling floodlights. With this win, Pakistan avenged their 1-2 defeat against arch-rival India in last month's Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh.
19-year-old Karachi-born Haseem, nephew of former Olympian Haseem Khan was the hero in his team's triumph. He scored his first goal three minutes from the interval and second soon after resumption. However Sohail Abbas blasted the match winning goal in 55th minute.
Prabhjot Singh and Rajpaul Singh scored the goals for India. Pakistan jumped to the top of the pool with four points in two matches and now India will face China in the do or die game on Tuesday and winners of the match will join Pakistan in the pre-final.
Zeeshan Ashraf's Pakistan team which struggled in the opening match against China, showed a lot commitment and fighting spirit to notch-up victory. Pakistan's attacking was reflected as they mustered five penalty corners to India's four. It was a match between drag-flicker specialists Sandeep and Sohail and battle went in favour of world goal scoring record holder Pakistani Sohail Abbas. India applied a lot of pressure to produce an equaliser late in the second session. But were denied the opportunity thanks to fine checking by the defender despite forcing back to short corners in the last ten minutes.
Match got off to a stunning start when Pakistan forward Tariq Aziz scored from the top of the circle, the strike beating Indian goalie Adrian D'Souza in only third minute of the match. However to the amazement and dismay of Pakistan team, South African umpire John Wright disallowed the goal saying that it was struck from the outside circle.
Pakistan players showed resentment against the decision. Captain Zeeehan Ashraf sent the players away and protested with the umpire who in turn showed him a green card. Shakeel Abbasi failed to connect a brilliant right wing cross in the eighth minute.
India came close to scoring their opening goal in the 13th minute when Tushar Khandkar's smart deflection off Gurbaj Singh's shot was saved by goalie Salman Akbar to the delight of his team-mates. However India gave Pakistan the first dossier when Prabhjot Singh banged the goal off an indirect penalty strike in the 15th minute.
Pakistan earned their first penalty corner in 17th minute but experienced half back Waseem Ahmed fumbled while stopping the ball thus denying Sohail Abbas an opportunity to go for his lethal drag-flick. Three-time former Champion Pakistan kept up their pressure on arch-rival India and secured their second short corner in the 20th minute. It was thwarted by custodian D'Souza after Rehan Butt tried to
score of the rebound from a strike from Sohail Abbas. Highly talented Haseem showed his class when he scored with a brilliant effort after snatching the ball from Sandeep Singh and scoring a reverse-sweep while felling down on the ground in the 32nd minute.
Comments
Comments are closed.