Shakeel’s goals set final showdown against Australia
The Kookaburras brushed aside Malaysia 6-0 with three goals coming through penalty strokes as the Malaysian defenders battled hard to contain the rampaging Australian forwards.
Pakistan beat England 2-1 through Shakeel Abbasi’s golden goal three minutes into extra-time after both teams played out a high-class 1-1 draw in the regulation period.
Shakeel gave Pakistan the lead in the 54th minute which Matthew Daly equalised two minutes from the final whistle through England’s fourth penalty corner in the last quarter.
He then swooped on a defence-breaking pass from Rehan Butt and beat English goalkeeper Jonathan Ebsworth with a hard push to secure victory for Pakistan.
The sold-out final on Sunday at the State Hockey Centre will feature the only two unbeaten teams in the 10-nation tournament who topped their respective league groups.
“I think we were the better team and deserved to win,” said Pakistan coach Asif Bajwa.
“We had England under pressure for most of the game and did not lose heart even when they got the equaliser. The plan was to be aggressive in extra-time and that paid off.”
England coach Jason Lee said he hoped his team will recover for the bronze medal play-off against Malaysia.
“The guys are disappointed because they had a real sense of pride in this performance,” said Lee.
“We attacked well, it just was not good enough against their defence.”
Australia are seeking a hat trick of gold medals at the Commonwealth Games after winning the title in both the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Games and in Manchester four years ago without losing a game.
The hosts, however, found the Malaysians a tough nut to crack as brilliant goalkeeping by Nasihin Ibrahim kept the scoreline blank till four minutes before the interval.
Australia earned a lucky break when Malaysian captain Kuhan Shanmuganathan tackled Jamie Dwyer inside the circle and Scottish umpire Gerald Curran awarded a stroke.
The game was held up for five minutes as the Malaysians protested vehemently but Curran was unmoved.
Kookaburras captain Brent Livermore, whose wife gave birth to their second daughter when the match was on, pushed home the first goal.
Australia earned another stroke seven minutes after resumption - this time awarded by Irish umpire Colin Hutchinson - and Livermore once more scored easily.
The second goal triggered an Aussie assault with Jamie Dwyer, Luke Doerner and Liam De Young scoring three times in the space of 16 minutes.
Malaysia conceded their third penalty stroke in the last few seconds of play and Doerner earned his second goal to seal an emphatic win for the hosts.
The bitterly disappointed Malaysians held a team meeting after the match but declined to speak to waiting reporters.
New Zealand, meanwhile, took the fifth position by defeating India 2-1 in extra time in the play-off for 5-6 places.—Agencies