CAIRO, Oct 15: Arch-rivals India Juniors outclassed Pakistan Juniors 3-0 in Akhbar Al-Youm hockey tournament Monday night at Cairo Stadium.
Although the tournament is being participated by French and Egyptian senior sides, Pakistan and India have fielded their junior strings as their seniors were busy in Asian Games in Busan, South Korea.
Overall, this was Pakistan’s third defeat against India in a month.
Pakistan senior team lost to India 3-2 in Cologne Champions Trophy league match in August-Sept, and then were beaten 4-3 by the Indians in the Asian Games semifinal earlier this month.
Monday’s thrashing by the traditional rivals was the second in the four-nation tournament. Pakistan lost their first game against Egypt 2-0.
Pakistan conceded four penalty corners in a row in just three minutes in the first half given by an Egyptian umpire.
All the four penalty corners were awarded to Indians in the 9th minute one after the other but they could not convert.
Few minutes later, India attacked which resulted in fifth short corner. They, however, failed to score but were given a penalty stroke after a foul by Pakistani defenders.
Pakistan players protested over the stroke and the match remained suspended for five minutes as players kept arguing with the umpire who refused to change his verdict.
Rajpal Singh successfully converted the stroke in the 18th minute that kept the Pakistan players under pressure.
The second goal four minutes later from India was because of slack Pakistan defence and goalkeeping. Sundeep Michael, after collecting a pass, dodged past two Pakistani defenders, hammered home without any difficulty as defenders and the keeper were beaten.
Pakistan created some moves through Abbas Haider, Tariq Aziz, Rizwan Khan, after the break but could not score because of poor finishing. They got penalty corners but could not capitalised.
In all, both sides got five penalty corners each.
The Indians once again showed their class when they scored their third after tearing Pakistan defence apart.
Substitute Tushar Khandekar completed the tally, hitting from top of the circle past the whole feeble Pakistan defence and the goalkeeper.
Indian coach Harinder Singh expressed satisfaction over his side’s performance. “My players played according to the plan.”
Harindar rejected the notion his team had senior Indian players.
Pakistan coach Ayaz Mahmood refused to comment on umpiring saying “our players should play in all type of circumstances as this is the way of learning, specially when a new team is being prepared.”
He said it was a great match and the players played according to their ability. “But our defense and goalkeeper did mistakes due to which we suffered two goals.”
Ayaz said his side had gained experience which would help them qualify for the Junior World Cup in 2005.
Pakistan:
Munir Shakir, Akhlaq Ahmad, Tariq Yameen, Mohammed Abu Bakar, Mohammad Imran, Anwar Sajjad, Yasir Islam, Shabir Khan, Tariq Aziz, Akhtar Ali, Rizwan Khan.
Substitutes: Abbas Haider, Mohammad Iqbal, Akram Usman, Asim Khan, Mohammad Khalid Mahmood.
India:
Khushmeet Singh, Yadav Sunil, Vinaya V.S, Arjun Halappa, Vivek Gupta, Pundlik Yellappa, Sundeep Michael, Prabodh Tirkey, Gabbar Singh, Rajpal Singh, Kamaldeep Singh.
Substitutes: Khandekar Tushar, Anthoney Anup, Pimple Girish, Yadav Arvind.—PPI