HYDERABAD (India), Oct 25: Pakistan defeated Egypt 3-1 on Saturday to secure a semifinal berth at the Afro-Asian Games hockey tournament.

Rehan Butt, Shakeel Abbasi and Ghazanfar Ali all scored as Pakistan won its second match in the four-nation Pool B.

Pakistan, who survived a scare before securing a 4-3 victory over underdogs Nigeria in their first match, opened the scoring against Egypt when Rehan’s connected a diagonal pass from skipper Mohammad Nadeem’s in the 9th minute.

The hard-tackling Egyptians denied Pakistan another goal before halftime.

Shakeel doubled the lead with a goal during a melee three minutes into the second session. Ghazanfar rounded off Pakistan’s scoring with a penalty corner conversion in the 43rd minute.

Egypt, who lost their first game 5-1 to India, got a consolation goal four minutes from time through a penalty corner strike by Sameh Metwally Mohammad.

In Pool A, penalty corner specialist Kuhan Shanmuganathan fired two goals in Malaysia’s 5-0 win over Ghana.

Malaysia was held to a 1-1 draw by South Africa, the recently crowned African champion, in its first match Thursday, and now has four competition points.

Ismail Abu opened Malaysia’s scoring against Ghana with an open field strike in the 14th minute.

Shanmuganathan then came into the frame with two stinging penalty corner drives in the 41st and 57th minutes.

Another penalty corner goal from Muhammad Amin Rahim and a flash strike by Tajol Rosli Mohammad completed Malaysia’s scoring.

China’s women, the reigning Asian Games champion, also made the semifinals, beating Nigeria 3-1 for its second win in Pool B.

The match was originally scheduled for Thursday but had to be postponed due to China’s late arrival at the games.—APP