Defending champions India breathed life into their Azlan Shah hockey campaign with a resounding 4-2 win over Pakistan yesterday
Defending champions India breathed life into their Azlan Shah hockey campaign with a resounding 4-2 win over Pakistan yesterday.
India opened the scoring in the 26th minute through Sardar Singh to go 1-0 up at half time. Pakistan's Muhammad Imran converted a penalty stroke to draw level in the 37th minute in the action-packed second half.
India then scored thrice to take a decisive 4-1 lead with contributions from Mandeep Antil (47th), Gurbaj Singh (53rd) and Tushar Khandekar (56th minute). Pakistan pulled back one through Kasif Ali's drag-flick strike on the 66th minute but it was too little too late.
Improved performance
It was an improved performance by India who wasted five penalty corners and struck in the dying moments to escape with a 1-1 draw against China in their first match.
India, who defeated Pakistan in their last meeting at the hockey World Cup in New Delhi, had to win this match to give themselves a chance of qualifying for the semi-finals. India seized the initiative and started making deep forays into the Pakistani half led by Arjun Hallapa who did not play the match against China on Thursday. India wasted two penalty corners before Sardar Singh slammed in the rebound off a penalty corner attempt by Dhanajay Mahadik.
Pakistan mounted pressure on the Indian defence and got a penalty corner but couldn't equalise. They did their best to narrow down the margin and converted one penalty corner.
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