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| January 19, 2002 | Saturday | Ziqa'ad 4, 1422 |
Pakistan blitz Netherlands
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 18: Pakistan, who lost 5-2 to the Netherlands in last year’s Champions Trophy, took sweet revenge routing the reigning world champions 3-0 in their opening match of the six-nation invitational tournament Friday.
With the defeat the Netherlands will have to beat the Kiwis Saturday to have any chance of qualifying for next week’s final at National Hockey Stadium.
The Netherlands without their trump card Bram Lomas missed ten penalty corners awarded to them throughout match.
Kashif Jawwad took advantage of the Netherlands sleepy defence to score their opening goal in the 10th minute after receiving a through pass from Shahbaz Ahmad.
Pakistan were in no mood to settle with one goal advantage as the four-time world champions pressed hard to increase the scoreline and they were not to be denied in the 24th minute.
A failed attempt by Kashif was picked up nicely by 23-year-old Mohammad Saqlain who hammered in the ball past the Netherlands goalkeeper Guus Vogels to take it 2-0 at half time.
In the second half, the Netherlands made a few breaks upfront but were denied as forward Marten Eikelboom could not put the ball past Pakistan’s goalie Mohammad Qasim in all of his attempts.
There was nothing much to say about the Pakistanis in the last 35 minutes of the match except for the goal they scored seven minutes before the final hooter.
Penalty corner specialist Sohail Abbas who was so enterprising in defence made no mistakes in his fifth try with his text book flick past Vogels.
Earlier in the opening match, New Zealand did well to shake off their jet-lag but still went down 4-2 to old rivals Australia.
They came back from two goals down, helped by a Brett Leaver penalty stroke on 42 minutes, before Jamie Dwyer destroyed their hopes with two late scores for the Australians.
Malaysia got off to a winning start when they edged Japan 2-1 in an entertaining match.
Malaysia attacked right from the first whistle and their determination paid dividends when hey were awarded a penalty stroke in the 10th minute.
But they were dealt with an early blow when half-back Nor Azlan Bakar limped off the pitch due to a hamstring problem.
Skipper Mirnawan Nawawi’s attempt at goal struck a Japanese defender on the goal line and umpire Nigel Iggo had no hesitation in awarding a stroke. Chua Boon Huat made no mistake from the penalty spot.
However the Japanese failed to make much headway especially from the five penalty corners they were awarded in the first half. It was different story though in the second half as Japan took only three minutes to find the equalizer through skipper Takahiko Yamabori.
And they were made to pay dearly for their misses when Chua scored the winner in the 62nd minute.
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