Mubashar rescues Pakistan again with late equaliser against England

Scores in 56th minute to help Men in Green pull off 2-2 draw against England

KARACHI: Pakistan drew their third consecutive match on Sunday as they scored again in the dying moments to run away with a 2-2 draw against England at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Pakistan, who drew their first match 1-1 against Wales and grabbed a last-minute equaliser against India on Saturday to bag one point courtesy a 2-2 draw, now sit on the third position with three points in their group.

The 13^th-ranked Pakistan team and started off with a balanced approach and played two goalless quarters against the seventh-ranked England side.

However, after they upped their aggression post-half-time, a field goal by Arslan Qadir in the 33^rd minute put them in lead against England.

England struck back within a minute as Mark Gleghorne converted a penalty corner in the 34^th minute to level the scores 1-1.

In the last 10 minutes of the match, England found a chance to take the lead in the match and Sam Ward raised his hand as a penalty corner move ended at the back of the Pakistan net.

With England leading 2-1, Mubashar Ali, Pakistan’s hero against India where he scored in the last minute of the match to snatch one point from the Men in Blue, was at it once again as he used the 56^th minute penalty corner to bring Pakistan on level terms in the match.

“We played well against a strong team like India and now we put up a good show against England too. But we need a win to rise into the top two and qualify for the semi-finals. We still have one match and we need to win it,” Qadir said while talking to The Express Tribune.

Pakistan are set to face Malaysia on April 11 in their bid to upstage England and India, who hold the top two position in the group with four points each from their two matches.

“We drew all three matches which is better than losing, but we need more points to stay in contention for the semi-finals. If we win the next match then we will have a strong case to qualify to the last-four stage,” said Qadir.

He added that new coach Roelant Oltmans has, and is, helping Pakistan improve. “The coach is working on our weak areas and helping us to learn to convert missed chances into goals. We are optimistic to improve for a better show on Wednesday,” concluded Qadir.