Pakistan hockey team receives fourth defeat of this year from India
Pakistan hockey team received its fourth consecutive defeat of this year from arch rival India at the ongoing Asian Games the other day. Indian team succeeded to qualify for the semi-final of the tournament after beating Pakistan with 3-2 in the group match.
Earlier this year, India overpowered Pakistan hockey team 4-1 at World Cup, defeated green shirts with 4-2 in Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, Malaysia and beat Pakistani squad 7-4 in Commonwealth Games at New Delhi, India.
Indian hockey squad confirmed its berth in the semi-final after claiming third success in pool match against Pakistan in 16th Asian Games at Guangzhou, city of China. Indian Drag flicker Sundeep Singh scored a pair of goals in each half on penalty
shots to make the victory possible for his team while Dharamvir Singh also scored a goal in the winning side.
More than one thousand people watched the match between arch rivals India and Pakistan at Aoti Hockey Centre, Guangzhou. As per the expectations, the match between Pakistan and India opened with fast moves and slamming shots. Pakistan, though attempted to
revive the past glory of the game but Indian’s zest destroyed their dreams.
Indian penalty corner specialist, Sandeep Singh marked first goal in the second minute of the match and gave one goal lead to his squad. Pakistani attacker, Rehan Butt in reply levelled the score with a goal in fourth minute of the game.
In the 16th minute of the match, Dharamvir Singh again upped the lead of India by a goal on sweep shot. A pass from centre position gave Dharamvir a chance to play flick shot. Salman Akbar the Pakistani goalkeeper could not block the hit.
Pakistani strikers attacked several times against India to level the score; however Indian defence rendered outstanding performances. At one occasion, Sardar Singh foiled an excellent bid of Muhammad Rizwan.
In the second half of the match, veteran Shakeel Abbasi scored a goal after obtaining lose ball from Dhananjay Mahadik at 8th minute and equalled the score.
Indian hockey team earned second penalty corner in 48th minute of the match and Sandeep Singh again put India ahead at 3-2 by second goal of the game. He successfully achieved the opportunity and marked a wonderful flicking hit to give India one
goal lead. This goal was a great master piece in the hockey.
Pakistan hockey team earned their first penalty corner in 57th minute of the game and found great opportunity to equal the score but unluckily Sohail Abbas could not perform according to the expectations. Indian goalkeeper Bharat Chetri superbly
stopped the flick of penalty corner specialist, Sohail Abbas.
Indian defence brilliantly performed in the game to block the attacks of Pakistani strikers while forward and midfield players also maintained the pressure on opponents with tricky and dodgy moves. Indian squad catapulted at top position in Pool-B with nine
points as they captured all three competitions.
Indian skipper, Rajpal Singh was of the view after the match that the fourth win was not a major issue for them as their real aim is to acquire the gold at Asiad. He said,
“Our strategy was simple and we have to attack from the start and not give Pakistan too many penalty corners.”
The captain of Pakistan hockey team, Zeeshan Ashraf threw all the garbage on umpiring system saying that they made the difference in the results. He said,
“We should have got at least three or four more penalty corners. I don’t see any major difference between the duo squads.” He maintained that it was a close match and luckily India got three opportunities in the game and they used all of them.
The former hockey superstar of Asia, Pakistan had won seven gold medals in Asian Games, however could not win any major event since 1994 Hockey World Cup. Pakistan has a chance to comeback in the series if it defeats Bangladesh in the pool match.
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