Pakistan upped the tempo and handed China an 8-3 defeat on Day 1 of the 14th Sultan of Johor Cup International hockey tournament at the Taman Daya Hockey Stadium on Saturday (17 October).
It was an amazing performance by the Chinese, ranked 20thin the world, who made a promising start in the first half against their far more illustrious opponents who are ranked 12th in the FIH Junior World Rankings.
Pakistan’s team captain Muhammad Ammad received the Man of the Match award from Mr. Parm Jat Singh, Deputy President of Johor Hockey Association.
The Green Shirts looked slightly more dominant in the first quarter and created two penalty corner opportunities. However, their best chance fell to Ullah Saif who fired Pakistan 1-0 ahead in the 13th minute via a field goal.
China, however, spilled on the pressure in the 15th and 18th minutes when Haolin Liang made the most of their circle entries to score two field goals to take his side a 2-1 ahead which surprised the 2016 silver medalist
While the Pakistanis continued to rack up the circle entries and chances on goals in the second quarter, they found the going gets tougher in every effort they made. They simply could not make a breakthrough against the Chinese wall in search for the equalizer.
China was far from finish demolishing the Green Shirts, and showed what they are capable of in the tournament. Yubo Wang converted a penalty corner in the 25th minute that punch a deep frustration into the Pakistanis heart as they held a 3-1 lead in the second quarter.
However, despite the early domination, Pakistan crawled back and began to build more momentum in the remaining five minute into the first half hooter. Muhammad Farooq converted a penalty corner in the 30th minute to close the deficit at 2-3, taking the battle into the third quarter.
The Green Shirts once again found their momentum in the third quarter to score three field goals and a penalty – taking the lead to 6-3 going into the fourth quarter. Waleed Rana leveled the score 3-3 (37th), Fayyaz Hamza nailed the fourth goal (39th), Ghulam Mustafa (43rd), and Muhammad Usman sank the sixth goal via a penalty corner conversion.
A penalty stroke (55th) and penalty corner conversion by Asam Haider (57th) sealed Pakistan’s hopes of chasing their target in qualifying the final.
Despite the defeat, the Chinese deserve a big roar of applause for their gritty performance. China’s next match is against Malaysia on Sunday (18th), while Pakistan continues its journey against Canada.
