Asian champions Pakistan earned the right Saturday to play world champions Australia in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup final after beating host Malaysia 3-2 in their last preliminary round match. The team was helped by the fact that Great Britain, who had been in the running for a finals berth, lost 3-1 to South Korea in an earlier match. Australia, who had already booked their final berth ahead of today’s match, defeated Antipodean neighbour New Zealand 4-2, to keep their date with Pakistan on Sunday. Australia leads the standings with 16 points while Pakistan is in second place with 12 points, with the Brits in third on nine points as New Zealand, India and South Korea tie with seven points apiece.
Pakistan came under massive pressure from the Malaysians but managed to keep their cool — and lead — to take the match. Sohail Abbas gave them the first goal in the eighth minute and Muhammad Waqas followed up with a second before Malaysia opened their account in the on 35 minutes through Hafifihafiz Hanafi. In the second half, Pakistan increased their lead through Shakeel Abbasi with the Malaysians reducing the deficit in the 57th minute through Muhammad Razie Rahim but the late charge failed to reel in the Pakistanis. Pakistan manager K.M. Junaid said the team was happy to have made the final and hoped to play better this time around against the world champions.
“We need to improve further and also take stock of the dangers posed by Australia,” he said of Sunday’s final. “We have beaten all the Asian teams in this tournament but we are up against a team that is vastly experienced in the final,” Junaid added. In the first game of the day Great Britain had only themselves to blame for a lethargic display as they went down 3-1 to joint-defending champions South Korea. South Korea were awarded a penalty corner as early as the second minute but Nicholas Brothers managed to palm away the attempt by Jang Jong-Hyun. However, eight minutes later the South Koreans were not to be denied as Jeon Byung-Jin worked his way into the semi-circle on the right and picked out Yoon Sung-Hoon who had the simple task of guiding the ball into the goal to give them the lead.
Great Britain managed to pull one back in the 20th minute from their second penalty corner taken by Matthew Daly but three minutes later the South Koreans were back in the lead when Jong-Hyun scored a field goal to put them 2-1 up at half time. In the 41st minute the Koreans pressed their advantage with a third goal with You Hyo-Swik scoring from a penalty corner rebound which ended Great Britain’s hopes of prevailing. In the final match of the day, the Kiwis needed to avoid a four-goal margin defeat at the hands of the world champions in order play Britain for third place, something they ensured in going down 4-2 result.Australia’s goals came from Brent Dancer, two strikes by Glenn Turner and another by Christopher Ciriello. New Zealand halved the margin through Steven Edwards to confirm their meet with Britain on Sunday while India and South Korea will vie for fifth placing.
