LAHORE: Poor performance by defence line, goalkeeper and failure to capitalise on penalty-corners resulted in a 3-1 routing of Pakistan at the hands of arch-rivals India in the Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament on Tuesday in Ipoh.

Olympian Arshad Chaudhary, former member of the national selection committee, expressed these views while talking to Dawn.

“Pakistan team kept the ball for comparatively long time and got a number of chances to score, but they wasted all  opportunities due to poor finishing,” he said.

“Our defence line failed to stop Indian forwards from staging the onslaught which needs immediate improvement.

“Coaches have to work on the goalkeeper as he is looking out of focus after playing well in the recently held back-to-back tournaments,” he maintained.

Arshad said playing against India had always been a game of nerves, but on Tuesday the boys didn’t look mentally strong.

“Our forwards were about to score field goals on many occasions but at least four times they fell ahead of the rival goalie instead of trying to put the ball into the cage, which showed their mental weakness in this crucial match,” he further said.

Arshad said Pakistan had made a fine start cashing in on the first penalty-corner but despite taking an early lead, they bowed to the Indian pressure.

Lamenting poor performance of captain Mohammad Imran and others in converting the short-corners, the former Olympian said: “In modern hockey, no team can win matches without converting penalty-corners, which the boys missed six times out of seven that paved the way for their defeat.”

Talking about the youngsters, Arshad said though Pakistan had inducted four youngsters into the squad to test different combination before starting final preparations for the World Cup 2014 qualifiers, performance of these youngsters was not up to the mark.