KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27: Pan-American champions Canada on Tuesday pulled off a surprise when they beat Pakistan 2-1 in a warm-up match ahead of the 29th Champions Trophy hockey tournament to be held at the National Stadium Bukht Jalil.

After a lacklustre first session, which failed to produce any goal, Canada struck twice in a span of six minutes to put Pakistan’s defence in disarray. The match saw Pakistan try all their boys in order to monitor and judge their performances before the opening match against world champions Germany in the elite eight-nation competition on Thursday.

The Canadian team, which is on a preparatory trip to Malaysia for next year’s Beijing Olympics, took the lead in the 12th minute of the second session off a penalty corner.

Demonstrating intelligence, Wayne Fernendes scooped the ball at the roof of cage, giving skipper and goalie Salman Akbar little chance to even see the ball. This followed a series of attacks to keep Pakistan under pressure. After missing a couple of close range chances, Canada’s Connor Grimes netted off a penalty corner to give his team a 2-0 advantage.

Pakistan warmed up only in the last 15 minutes with some good work by centre-forward Shabbir Ahmed Khan and left-in Abbas Haider. Many of Shabbir’s good attempts were blocked by the Canadian goalie till his brilliant deflection off an angular cross from Mohammad Afzal after the ball rebounded on a short corner taken by Mohammad Imran gave Pakistan their only goal.

When Pakistan forced a penalty in the final minute, Imran’s push was blocked by the goal keeper and Shabbir’s attempt on the rebound went wide off target.

Not really bothered by a defeat in the warm-up, Pakistan’s coach Olympian Manzoor-ul-Hasan said that “I told my players don’t take any risks which could have caused them injuries before the competition.”But Pakistan’s chief-coach and manager Khawaja Zakauddin was not too happy with Pakistan’s defence. —APP