Colts make it two wins out of two

U18 hockey side downs Victoria 2-1 in hard-fought battle

KARACHI: Pakistan Junior hockey team defeated defending champions Victoria 2-1 in the opening match of the U18 Australian Hockey Championship in Hobart on Wednesday.

Having hammered Randwik Hockey Club 6-0 a day earlier, the Colts have now made it two wins in as many matches on their tour Down Under.

The Greenshirts opened the scoring in the 11^th minute when Ghazanfar Ali converted their first penalty corner to put the visitors up 1-0.

Minutes later, Pakistan received another penalty corner but this time failed to make the conversion.

Victoria punished Pakistan for their profligacy and were back on level terms in the 17^th minute when Ryan Nangle scored via a penalty corner — one of four the hosts received on the day.

Both the teams pushed hard in the second half and made six entries each in each other's circles, but clear-cut chances were hard to come by.

Victoria had two shots on target in the entire period, with both attempts successfully thwarted by Pakistan goalkeeper Waqar Ali.

The winning goal finally came in the 63^rd minute when Ahmed Nadeem scored via a penalty corner — their only attempt at goal in the second half.

The defending champions searched hard for an equaliser but were unable to find their way past the Pakistani defense.

"The boys have shown brilliant skills today, and I am really happy to see them play like this," head coach Kamran Ashraf told The Express Tribune. "The way they played and defeated the defending champions is really incredible.

"We still have many matches to go but more than winning our main focus on this tour is to gain valuable experience and identify our weaknesses and also to learn the way modern hockey is played."

Ashraf was also quick to remind that his charges had more ball possession than their opponents and lauded the hosts for their hospitality. "We saw good sportsman sprit too when the kids from opponent team congratulated the Pakistan team on their win," he said.

Two of Pakistan players, Shahzaib Khan and Adeel Latif, were also shown a green and yellow card respectively during the match.