International Festival of Hockey: NZ stage comeback to beat Pakistan 3-2

Captain Irfan rues inability to find perfect team combination

KARACHI: Pakistan hockey team were beaten 3-2 on Saturday by New Zealand even after they performed better than their opponents in the first half of the match during their last International Festival of Hockey match in Melbourne and Bendigo.

Pakistan opened the scoring with Muhammad Umar Bhutta in the sixth minute of the first quarter as he converted a penalty corner.

Twelve minutes later, in the second quarter, Hayden Phillips completed New Zealand’s move across the field and brought his team on equal terms against Pakistan in the 18^th minute.

Ammad Shakeel Butt then helped Pakistan take the lead once again as he pushed the ball into the net courtesy a penalty stroke, just five minutes after the half-time in the 35^th minute.

It took New Zealand only two minutes to end the deficit and come on level terms after George Muir netted through a field goal in the 37^th minute.

No team was able to score after in the next 20 minutes, but New Zealand, who were now playing without a goalkeeper and with 11 field players, earned a penalty corner and converted it in the 57^th minute to end match with a scoreline of 3-2.

"We are not happy with our performance,” lamented Pakistan captain Muhammad Irfan, while talking to The Express Tribune. “We could have performed better than we did. Although we played better against New Zealand as compared to the first two matches, but overall, I am not satisfied.”

He then revealed the problem that he identified as the main reason for Pakistan’s defeats.

"We are having trouble in creating a good team combination,” he explained. “Right now our combination is not working at all. The new players in the team are not able to follow the flow of the team which affects our forward moves; they are either broken down in the middle or finish without any success.”

Irfan continued that the team will try its best to beat Japan in the third-fourth placement match. "In the third place match we will try our best to overcome Japan and show that playing matches together as a unit does improve individual and team performances," he said.