BHUBANESWAR: Riding on Arslan Qadir’s fine brace, Pakistan beat India 4-3 in a high-octane seven-goal thriller in their Champions Trophy semi-final at the Kalinga Stadium on Saturday.

Pakistan will now face Olympic champions Germany, who beat Australia 3-2 in the other semi-final, in Sunday’s final.

Arslan Qadir scored the winner in the dying minutes of the game to dash India’s hopes to reach the final of the Champions Trophy for the first time.

Both the teams dished out an attacking brand of hockey right from the word go as Indian custodian P. Sreejesh was tested twice inside 10 minutes of the first quarter by the Pakistani strikers.

Gurjinder Singh converted India’s first penalty corner, earned by Nikkin Thimmaiah, to give the hosts an early lead in the 12th minute.

India also managed to foil Paksitan’s first penalty corner attempt in the dying minutes of the first quarter but they bounced back in the second quarter to make the scoreline 1-1.

Sreejesh made three back-to-back saves right in the first minute of the second quarter but Arslan scored a fine field goal in the 16th minute to equalise.

Indian striker Akashdeep missed a sitter at the stroke of second quarter when he failed to trap the ball served on platter by S.V. Sunil.

INDIA’S Gurbaj Singh falls on a Pakistan player after a collision during their last-four clash.—AP

Pakistan went ahead 2-1 in the 32nd minute through a fine goalmouth tap-in by Mohammad Waqas despite India’s appeal for a referral.

India then wasted two back-to-back penalty corners in the 34th but Dharamvir Singh scored a fine field goal to put India back on level terms, sidestepping goalkeeper Inran Butt and smashing in the right corner after receiving a razor-sharp Gurbaj Singh cross.

Mohammad Irfan restored Pakistan’s lead, scoring a fine goal from a penalty corner variation in the 49th but Nikkin Thimmaiah scored two minutes later to haul India level before Arslan intervened late on.

Earlier, Olympic champions Germany quashed Australia’s bid to win a sixth successive Champions Trophy.

The Germans, playing with seven junior World Cup winners of 2013, stunned the Kookaburras with two goals by the ninth minute through Timur Oruz and Mats Grambusch.

Florian Fuchs made it 3-0 for the new-look German team, taking advantage of a goalmouth scramble and scooping the ball past Australian goalkeeper Andrew Charter.

Australia had been forced to try out new combinations due to the absence of four first-choice players, including star forward Jamie Dwyer.

They finally scored off their third and fourth penalty-corners in the third quarter through Chris Ciriello and Nicholas Budgeon.

Published in Dawn December 14th , 2014