MOSCOW, July 6: Scotland hockey captain Mark Ralph celebrated his 100th appearance by converting a penalty corner in the last minute to deny a victory to Pakistan and earning his side a 2-2 draw on the second day of four-nation tournament on Friday at Elektrostal Stadium.

Ralph shattered the victory dreams of former world champions by beating a set of defenders and the goalkeeper with a fine hit off Scotland’s third short corner of the day.

The green shirts went into the lead in the 10th minute through Imran Warsi’s forceful hit but the Scottish team jolted Pak when Stephen Dick scored off their second short corner with a firm shot to throw open the game.

Pakistan again went up when Muhammad Imran put the ball in the roof nets off the third short corner in the 25th minute before Ralph spoiled the show for them.

Earlier on Thursday, Pakistan survived a scare before beating high flying Russia 6-2 in their opening match.

By ending first half at 3-2 Pakistan managed to salvage their pride against a pumped-up Russia whose main reliance was on speed.

Russia stunned Pakistan by taking lead off their second short corner in the 10th minute through their captain Viktor Soukhikh amid rousing applause from a rather partisan crowd.

A number of green shirts’ efforts were dashed by rival goalkeeper Igor Dobizhin who with his brave front blocking and right judgement on most of penalty corner drills took the Pakistani players by surprise.

Pakistan equalised in the 19th minute, translating their 2nd short corner through Ahsanullah who made no mistake with a firm shot in the heart of the post.

Pakistani players went onto attack and managed to earn successive penalty corners. They went into lead in the 6th short corner through fine effort of Waqas Sharif.

In a fiercely contested first half, Russia again challenged the might of their opponents by levelling scores at 2-2 in the last minute when Dmity Azarov scored off the third penalty corner for his team. Shakeel Abbasi put the visitors ahead once again off a fine pass from Akhtar Ali seconds before close of first half.

Akhtar Ali fed a reverse flick pass to Yasir Islam in the 42nd minute who smartly put the ball into the post. Muhammad Imran scored off the 7th short corner in the 48th minute while Akhtar slammed in the sixth goal in the 67th minute.

“The first half was a tight one for us but we changed plans to dominate the second session,” said coach Islahuddin after the game. Russian manager Igor Shishkov said his team lost its way after gaining control in the first half.—PPI