IPOH (Malaysia), May 15: India kept their hopes of reaching the finals of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament by beating their traditional rivals Pakistan 2-1 on Thursday.

The win puts them one point behind Pakistan in the round-robin table and means they only have to beat hosts Malaysia in their final fixture on Saturday to secure a place in the final with Argentina.

India, with 12 juniors in the squad, started aggressively and took the lead from their first penalty corner in the seventh minute. Defender Sandeep Singh’s low flick hit goalkeeper Ahmed Nasir’s pads before going into the net.

It was Singh’s seventh goal of the tournament and he could have added to it three minutes later from another penalty corner but Nasir was up to save it.

But India kept up the pressure and increased their lead through Diwakar Ram off their third penalty corner in the 26th minute.

Pakistan, who needed a draw to book their place in the final, did not play to form in the first half and were unable to score in the, despite earning four penalty corners.

However, they went all-out in the second half and were rewarded with a penalty stroke in the 59th minute — following a handball by Ram — and Mohammad Saqlain made no mistake from the spot.

Pakistan, who needed just a draw to qualify for the final, then had three clear chances to equalise in the last two minutes but goalkeeper Adrian D’souza pulled off some stunning saves.

Indian manager Pargat Singh said he was not pleased with his team’s performance despite the win.

“The forwards were a let down for failing to score despite creating many chances. We scored two penalty corner goals in the first-half to put the pressure on the opponents,” he said.

“But in the second half we gave Pakistan a lot of space to create chances and was lucky they failed to equalise.”

However, he said it was a good win over Pakistan. “We will go all out to defeat Malaysia in the last match on Saturday to qualify for the final,” Pargat said.

New Zealand, meanwhile, beat Canada 3-0 to register their second win. David Kosoof (20th minute), Dean Couzins (48th) and Nicholas Wilson (63rd) scored for the Kiwis.

In the third match of the day, Malaysia lost to Belgium 2-4, leaving them in the bottom of the standings with four points.

Results:

India 2 Pakistan 1

New Zealand 3 Canada 0

Belgium 4 Malaysia 2

—AFP