The Hindu : Sport : Pakistan gets past China

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Friday, May 11, 2007
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Pakistan gets past China

S. Thyagarajan

PAN-AMERICAN CLASH: Argentina's Rodrigo Nicolas takes a tumble after crashing into Canada goalkeeper Michael Mahood. — Photo: AP

Ipoh : Competition was close but lacked the intensity as the two classification matches meandered through a prosaic course in the Sultan Azlan Shah international hockey tournament on Thursday.

In a clash involving two pan-American heavyweights, Argentina and Canada, the former moved up to figure in a 5-6 places tussle with a comfortable 3-0 win. But Pakistan frittered away a 2-0 half-time lead to be stretched into extra-time by China, which netted two goals in the second half.

Two penalty corner goals by Imran Muhammad in the first half kept Pakistan in full control of the proceedings. The initial resistance offered by the Chinese defence crumbled once the Pakistani attack achieved a filament of fluency.

But the Chinese not letting anything to go fought the issue tooth and nail not only to reduce the margin but also equalise when eight minutes remained from close.

The extra-time did not alter the 2-2 score and the tie went to the tie-breaker which Pakistan won 3-1 (total 5-3).

Argentina progressively escalated pressure once it became apparent that the Canadian defence was losing steam after putting up a stiff resistance. Skipper Rodrigo Vila set the action for the opening goal with a neat run down the middle for Estaben to put the finishing touches close on half-time.

However, before the breather, Argentina struck again, Juan Ignacio taking credit for converting a penalty corner.

With a clear 2-0 lead, Argentina held the whip-hand almost throughout the second half during which time it enlarged the lead to 3-0 from a penalty corner goal by Pedro Ibarra.

Argentina will play Pakistan for the 5-6 places while Canada takes on China for the 7-8 places on Saturday.

Reprieve for Raghunath

An error by the Technical table recorder, who had marked the yellow card suspension of Raghunath against the name of Bimal Lakra in the match against China, has earned a reprieve for the former. The TD has decided to stand by the score-sheet he signed, which, in effect, will allow Raghunath to be fielded for Friday's semifinal against Malaysia.

Earlier, it was informed that Raghunath would be ineligible for the match because of two yellow cards against him.

The results: (5-8): Argentina 3 (Rodrigo Vila, Juan Ignacio, Pedro Ibarra) beat Canada 0; Pakistan 2 (Imran Muhammad 2) v China 2 (Song Yi, Liu Xian Tang). Tie breaker: Pakistan 3 (Akhtar Ali, Zeeshan, Imran Warsi) China 1 (Hu Ren). 5-3.

Friday's matches: Semifinals: Australia v Korea (3-35 p.m.); India v Malaysia (5-35 p.m.).

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