-Photo courtesy malaysianhockey.blogspot.com

KARACHI: Pakistan routed Sri Lanka 14-0 on Monday in their third and final group match in Melaka, Malaysia to qualify for the semi-finals of the Junior Asia Cup.

Prior to the match, Pakistan needed to win by a margin of 12 goals in order to finish top of their group and avoid hosts Malaysia in the semi-finals.

Sri Lanka were denied any opportunity to score and were hapless in front of the Greenshirts.

Tousiq opened the scoring for Pakistan through a penalty corner in the sixth minute and converted another one in the 10th minute. Jaffer, Dilber and Rizwan scored in the 16th, 17th and 23rd minute respectively. Dilber also scored in the 24th minute.

Pakistan's seventh goal came from the skipper Umar Bhutta in the 33rd minute and at half time the score was 8-0 in Pakistan's favour.

Bhutta opened the second half with a goal in the 38th minute and Mohammad Irfan made it 10 in the 44th minute. Shah Ali scored in the 60th minute while Bhutta completed his hat-trick a minute later. In the 64th minute, Tousiq completed his hat-trick as well through another penalty corner. Bhutta scored in the last minute to make the score 14-0.

Earlier in the day, India beat China 2-1 to qualify for the semi finals with goals from Antil Naveen and Amit Rohidas while China's only goal was scored by Yu Xin.

Pakistan will now play the semi-final on May 10, 2012.

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