Pakistan hammered Sri Lanka 14-0 to make the semi-finals of the seventh Junior Asia Cup in style at the MBMB Hockey Stadium in Malacca, Malaysia and with this big win the national junior greens also qualified for the Junior World Cup Hockey.
Pakistan junior hockey team will now play Korea in the semi-final of the Junior Aisa Cup. Hat-tricks by Umar Bhutta and Muhammad Taufeeq took Pakistan to victory. In a separate match, India defeated China 2-1 in their last pool match to enter the semi-finals.
On Sunday, India recovered from a goal down in a 2-2 draw against Pakistan. Pakistan took the lead twice but India came back with an equaliser.
India took four points with a win and a draw and met China in the last pool match on Monday. In another match, Malaysia beat Japan 3-1. The semi-final will be played between India and Malaysia while South Korea will face Pakistan in the other semi-final The won put Pakistan top of the Pool B of the 7th Men’s Junior Asia Cup being held at Malacca, Malaysia. Pakistan had a 12-goal target to chase in order to avoid meeting Malaysia.
They did it in style, scoring 8 goals in the first 35 minutes before adding another six in the second half.
Pakistan opened scoring through Mohammad Tousiq in the sixth minute. And four minutes later Tuosiq struck off another penalty corner to double the advantage. The floodgates opened as Mohammad Jaffar made it 3-0 in the 16th with Muhammad Dilber making it 4-0 in the very next minute.
Muhammad Suleman then made it 5-0 in the 23rd minute and before Sri Lanka could recover it was 6-0 courtesy of Dilber. Pakistan were halfway through to their target but they were not letting up as they went on to score another two before halftime through skipper Muhammad Umar Bhutta ( 33rd minute) and Ali Shan (35th minute) The ninth goal came just three minutes into the second half courtesy of Umar Bhutta. And in the 44th minute it was double figures when Irfan scored his second of the match.
Goals by Ali Shan (60th) and skipper Umar Bhutta (61st minute) assured Pakistan of top spot in the group and a semis match against Korea. Two more goals by Tousiq (64th minute) and Umar (69th) completed the rout.
Goal Scorer: Muhammad Tousiq 4 Goals, Muhammad Umar Bhutta (Capt) 3 Goals, Muhammad Dilber 2 Goals, Muhammad Irfan 2 Goals, Muhammad Suleman 2 Goals and Muhammad Jaffar 1 Goal. Meanwhile, Muhammad Asif Bajwa, Secretary General PHF said: “We promised the nation that we will qualify from the Junior Asia Cup for the coming World Cup and we achieved the goal accordingly.
“The next match will be against Korean Junior Team on May 10 at 1705 hours (PST), for which the strategy has been worked out and has requested the nation to pray for the victory in the Semi Final against Korea,” he added.
