KARACHI, April 21: A second half charge by forwards helped Pakistan bury Chinese Taipei under an avalanche of goals to score a 15-1 victory at Junior Asia Cup hockey on Wednesday.
Pakistan failed to utilise their major weapons - Imran Warsi and Mohammad Imran - the penalty corner strikers as they converted only three of 13 short corners they forced.
While Imran Warsi missed the target thrice and Mohammad Imran once, Chinese Taipei goalkeeper Chih-Wei Chen produced four fine saves off Warsi efforts at Hockey Club of Pakistan.
"We still have deficiencies and penalty corner is one of the departments which needs improvement. But I will praise Chinese Taipei goalkeeper who made several saves on penalty corners," Asif Bajwa said at a post-match press conference.
Chinese Taipei coach Mohammad Naeemuddin said his side faced problems since he was not on bench as he reached Pakistan on Wednesday because of visa problems. "My name was not on list, therefore, I did not sit on the bench today which affected the players whose average age is 16 years. We had to field stand-in goalkeeper because our number one custodian is injured.
"Secondly, I have been appointed barely 15 days ago. However we will give tough fight to our opponents in next matches," Naeemuddin of Pakistani origin said. Imran Warsi gave Pakistan a perfect start with a 4th-minute penalty corner conversion followed by a Tariq Aziz goal off a Akhtar Ali pass in the 8th minute.
The visitors shocked hosts eight minutes later reducing the margin through Yao-Wen Shih on a short corner. The miseries of the tour party were doubled when their skipper Kuo-Heng Fan was yellow carded by umpire Latif-ur-Rehman.
Imran Warsi push crashed into the roof of the net, giving Chih-Wei Chen no chance in the 31st minute. Kashif Yaqoob moved the scoreboard three minutes later after being assisted by Shakeel Abbasi.
Khalid Mahmood picked up a rebound from Chih-Wei Chen during an indirect drill five minutes into second session to finish off the job. Since two Imrans failed to live up to the expectations despite getting nine penalty corners in the first period, forwards took charge in the second half to tear the visiting side apart.
Four-goal Shakeel netted his first in the 42nd minute and second four minutes later after a brilliant run by Akhtar Ali. Shakeel set up Kashif for the eighth goal in the 48th minute before scoring his third in the 51st minute.
Akhtar rifled home from the top of the circle in the 52nd minute and got his double two minutes later. Tariq was unstoppable, netting off a rebound in the 56th minute. Shakeel slammed home his fourth in the 62nd minute, while Kashif completed the tally with goals in the 63rd and 64th minutes.
Malaysia were not as aggressive as being expected against Bangladesh as they registered a 3-0 win. Mohd Rejab opened the account in the 6th minute, while Mohan Jivan doubled the lead in the 16th minute. The game ended with a Abdul Jalil goal in the 59th minute.
Defending champions South Korea made a perfect start, thrashing Japan 8-2 in another one-sided affair. Jong Hyun Jang struck twice for South Korea in the 2nd and 8th minutes, while Hyun Bae Kong (13th minute), John Hyun Jang (27th minute), and Sung Hoon Yoon (29th, 33rd minutes) made it 6- 0.
Kyu Yeob Jang (39th minute) and Wan Tae Park (53rd minute) completed the tally. Japan scored twice through Kei Kawakami (51st minute) and Hiroto Noda (58th minute). Three goals each by Sandeep Singh and Sandeep Michael gave India a comprehensive 10-0 victory over China.
Apart from Sandeep Singh (12th, 25th, 42nd minutes) and Sandeep Michael (9th, 49th, 69th), Girish Pimpale (40th, 68th minutes), Hari Parsad (26th minute), and Tushar Khandker (7th minutes) were the other scorers.
Thursday's fixtures:
South Korea v Singapore at 1.00pm; India v Sri Lanka at 3.00pm.
