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Pakistan

Pakistan defeated India 2-0 in a high intensity final to win the Four-Nation Junior Hockey Tournament at the National Hockey Stadium here on Sunday. In a classification match, South Africa downed lowly Japan 4-2 to earn third place. Provincial Minister for Sports Naeem Ullah Shahani was the chief guest and distributed the trophies and prizes. Pakistan Hockey Federation president Tariq Kirmani was also present on the occasion.

The green shirts, who won the Junior Asia Cup in 1996 in Malaysia, since then were struggling to capture a title and yesterday they finally ended the winning drought to accomplish a long awaited goal. Pakistan, beaten by world junior champions India twice last year in a six-nation tournament at Egypt and in the final of the Junior Asia Cup at Karachi, overwhelmed their archrivals in a rough play.

Both teams showed high emotions particularly in the second half in which the Indian players almost attacked umpire Peter Wright for awarding Pakistan their second goal. Pakistan were also reduced to ten members when the same umpire showed a yellow card to Imran Warsi for mishandling an Indian player in the centre of the field. The rough play had prompted the umpires to blow their whistles time and again to control the proceedings of the match.

Pakistan opened their account in the 7th minute through Shakeel Abbasi, Initially umpire Satoshi Konda disallowed the goal scored by Pakistan’s captain, and on the protest of the home players reversed his decision after consulting fellow other umpire Peter. The score remained 1-0 at lemon break.

After a less absorbing first half, Pakistan appeared more organised and disciplined in attacks in the second half but tempers flared time and again with rough tackling by both the sides. Pakistan slammed their second goal in the 52nd minute when Kashif Yaqoob hit the ball shoulder high in the net. This provoked the Indian players who encircled the umpire and pushed him, demanding a foul hitting of Kashif but Peter stuck to his earlier decision.

Earlier, South Africa thrashed Japan 4-2 after leading 1-0 at half time. South Africa netted their first goal off penalty corner in the 31st minute through Pierre Geldenhuys. Geldenhuys struck again in the second half through penalty corner in the 37th minute. Matthew McConkey made it 3-0 in the 50th minute. Japan put their act together and scored their first goal off penalty corner through Hiroto Noda to reduce the margin. But South Africa were in aggressive mood and slammed their fourth goal through Lungile Tsolekile in the 61st minute. In the dying moments of the game (70th minute), Japan’s Hiroto Noda scored his second goal to make it 2-4.

Awards:

Pakistan’s emerging penalty corner shooter Imran Warsi was declared the highest scorer of the event for scoring seven goals. He was awarded a special prize by PHF president Tariq Kirmani. Pakistan’s goalkeeper Nasir Ahmad was adjudged the best goalkeeper while Hari Prasad from India was awarded the best player of the tournament award. Fair play trophy was awarded to Japan who finished fourth.

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