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| September 22, 2003 | Monday | Rajab 24, 1424 |
Pakistan maul BD in their opening match
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 21: Pakistan were merciless in their opening match at the Asia Cup in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, handing Bangladesh a 8-0 mauling at the National Hockey Stadium.
Nonetheless the Pakistanis put up a rather poor performance and were thwarted time and again by in-form Bangladesh goalkeeper Rasel Khan.
The much-vaunted penalty corner battery of the Pakistanis also failed to strike as efficiently as it normally does and was only able to convert two of the five penalty corners the side was awarded.
Mudassir Ali opened scoring in the eighth minute and the Pakistanis failed to immediately convert their domination into goals.
Kashif Jawwad scored in the 21st, 46th and 61st minutes, while penalty corner ace marksman Sohail Abbas got a brace by converting penalty corners in the 26th and 62nd.
Skipper Mohammad Nadeem came onto the score sheet in the 46th minute while Rehan Butt rounded up a miserable opening match for the Bangladeshis with the eighth and final goal in the 64th minute.
“We played well in patches but I am not too worried about it as it was our first match,” said Pakistan team manager Abdul Rashid Junior.
“There will be a tough match against China tomorrow and the players know what the stakes are.”
In another match, Japan overcame stiff resistance from Hong Kong to register a 7-2 win.
But it was more of a warm-up for the Japanese who were conserving energy for their vital match against Malaysia Monday.
“We tried out a couple of things in the first half and they did not work well. But we did not want to give too much away as the Malaysians were observing our match closely,” said Japan coach Toichi Nagai.
Japan took the lead through Akihiko Hirate in the 12th minute but allowed Hong Kong to get back into the game with Preetpal Singh Chima scoring via a reverse hit in the 20th minute.
It was a totally different Japan in the second half as they ran rings around the fast-tiring Hong Kong players.
And their efforts were rewarded when skipper Kenichi Katayama scored in the 40th minute to put them 2-1 ahead.
Naohiko Tobita made it 3-1 when he converted a penalty corner in the 50th but Hong Kong stayed in the hunt when Ali Akhbar scored in the 51st minute.
Japan scored four goals in 11 minutes through Katayama (56), Ryuji Furusato (61, 68) and Kazayuki Ozwaw (64) to take control of the match.
Hong Kong scored a consolation goal through Arif Ali who converted a penalty stroke in the 69th minute.—AFP
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