Pakistan avoid wooden spoon

Greenshirts down South Africa 6-2 to finish 7th in 8-team Hockey World League.


Our Correspondent July 07, 2013
Olympians continued to lament Pakistan team’s abysmal performance as it missed a golden opportunity to qualify for the World Cup at the HWL.. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE

KARACHI: Pakistan avoided a last-place finish at the Hockey World League (HWL), defeating South Africa 6-2 to finish seventh at the eight-team event in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.    

After getting their campaign off to a fine start and topping their group to qualify for the last-eight, the Greenshirts recorded back-to-back defeats to be reduced to fighting for seventh place against South Africa.



Having defeated the opponents during the group stage, Pakistan resisted South Africa and ended up recording a convincing win.

The Proteas made several attempts but it was Pakistan who got the opener with Mohammad Waqas finding the target through a 22nd-minute penalty-corner.

Leading the first half 1-0, Pakistan returned to the final session aggressively, smashing five more goals to hit the Proteas for six for the second time in the event.

They scored three goals within five minutes (37 to 41) with Mohammad Rizwan Senior, Aamir Shahzad and Haseem Khan doing the damage. Abbas Haider stretched the lead by scoring another in the 53rd minute.

South Africa strived for a fightback, getting a couple of goals from Timothy Drummond and Lloyd Norris-Jones but that was never going to be enough especially with Haseem completing the mauling by scoring yet another goal four minutes before full time.

Criticism continues

Olympians continued to lament Pakistan team’s abysmal performance as it missed a golden opportunity to qualify for the World Cup at the HWL.

“It’s sad to see such a performance against lower-ranked teams,” said former captain Islahuddin Siddiqui. “Pakistan had the best chance in this event as top teams like Australia and the Netherlands were not a part of it.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8th, 2013.

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