South Asian Games: Pakistan defeat India in hockey final

Greenshirts have won the event three times in a row after triumphs in 2006 and 2010

KARACHI: Pakistan Whites made it a hat-trick of titles in the South Asian Games’ hockey event as they defeated arch-rivals India 1-0 in a nail-biting final to clinch gold at the Tayebulla Hockey Stadium pitch in Guwahati, India on Friday.

The final started with Pakistan playing their traditional attacking hockey against the young Indian team that had only Olympian Gubraj Singh as its sole senior player. The packed house, that saw a crowd more than the stadium capacity, was hoping for a fight from the young Indians.



Pakistan had a chance to open the scoring early on through a penalty corner in the eighth minute but Aleem Bilal hit wide of the mark.

Goalkeeper Imran Butt then complained about the newly installed lights disturbing his view, but the tournament director could do little due to a shortage of both alternate lighting and maintenance staff.

Pakistan kept the ball brilliantly but could not find a way through as the young Indians defended stoically. The closest they came in the early stages was when Haseem Khan’s reverse flick was deflected onto the post and out in the 23rd minute.

The Men in Green finally had their breakthrough in the 35th minute though as Awaisur Rehman scored the opener just before the half-time break.

Tempers flared early in the second half as Pakistan’s Kashif Ali and India’s Gubraj exchanged heated words.



India upped the ante, looking to find the elusive equaliser but could not do so despite registering six shots at goal, two of which came from penalty corners.

The final whistle led to wild celebrations from those in green as the two-time defending champions made it three wins in three.

Other results

Pakistan men’s shooting team — comprising of Maqbool Hussain, Ghulam Mustafa Bashir and Muhammad Kabir — won silver medal in the 25m Standard Pistol men’s team event by scoring a combined total of 1663-31x.

In kabaddi, the men’s team lost to Sri Lanka 14-13 in a close match. They were also defeated by Nepal 18-9 to make it two defeats in the two matches they have played so far. Meanwhile the women’s team crashed out of the event, losing 41-10 to Nepal and 69-23 to Bangladesh.

The men’s handball team defeated Nepal 50-15 in their third match. They had won the first against Afghanistan 42-23 but had lost the second to Bangladesh 38-24.

Pakistan’s medal tally has reached 74 medals – eight gold, 23 silver and 43 bronze — on the seventh day of SAG. 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th,  2016.

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