April 28, 2008	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 21, 1429

KARACHI, April 27: The Pakistan junior hockey team ended their tour to South Africa with an emphatic 5-3 win in the fifth and final Test against the hosts’ under-21 team in Durban on Saturday.

According to a message received here on Sunday, Pakistan won the five-match series 4-0 with one match drawn.

The visitors took the South African citadel by storm and were soon leading from Kashif Ali’s penalty-corner conversion in the fifth minute of the match.

Ten minutes later, left-winger Mohammad Zubair doubled the lead with a brilliant field goal and then Kashif Ali stretched the lead further with a penalty stroke conversion, result of a penalty-corner strike.

Though Pakistan took an impregnable 3-0 lead in the first half, the hosts bounced back strongly in the second half.

Taking advantage of Pakistan’s complacency, South African forwards destroyed visitors’ defence to earn a plethora of penalty-corners.

Successfully they fired in one penalty-corner after the other to bring the two sides at even keel. It was an astonishing display of penalty-corner drill.

Pakistan came out of their slumber and stymied the South African attack.

They succeeded in taking the lead again through left-winger Mohammad Zubair’s exquisite field goal.

With time running out, the South Africans retreated while giving space to the Pakistan right flank who scathed through with clinical precision.

Right-half Khurram Shahzad culminated the move with a fine goal just before the final hooter.

Pakistan got four penalty-corners while South Africa were awarded eight.

“I am satisfied with the performance of the team,” chief coach Jahangir Butt said.

“The team played excellently on the tour and it is all the more satisfying that we did not lose any match even against the South Africa’s Olympic qualifying team,” he added.

The team will return home on Monday.—APP