Pakistan rout Korea, set up final date with Malaysia

Three times champions Pakistan routed South Korea 6-1 in the semi-final of the Junior Asia Cup to set up date with hosts Malaysia in the final at the Bukit Serindit Hockey Stadium, Malacca, Malaysia on Thursday. Pakistan started the game with aggressive intent which paid dividends straight-away. They raced to a 3-0 lead in the first 15 minutes with Mohammad Dilbar grabbing a hat trick in the 11th, 13th and 15th minutes. With such a big lead at half-time, it was always going to be an improbable task for the Koreans, even after they managed to get on the score sheet in the 47th minute of the second half through Im Seung Ho. Pakistan hardly broke a sweat, though, and managed to notch up three more goals, Dilbar for his fourth in the 59th minute, Muhammad Suleiman in the 61st and Mohammad Tousiq in the 64th to seal Korea’s fate.
The final will be a repeat of 1992, incidentally also on Malaysian soil, when Pakistan were crowned champions of the event held in Ipoh. South Korea’s only goal of the match scored by Seungho Im in the 46th minute. The final will be played on May 13 between Pakistan and Malaysia, which beat India 2-0 in the other semi-final earlier in the day. Resurgent Malaysia dashed the hopes of defending champions India as they registered a 2-0 victory.
After a barren first half, Malaysia struck twice in the second session to frustrate the Indians, who adopted a slow game tactics to contain the marauding forwards of Malaysia, but failed to shine when their turn came for scoring. Star striker Faizal Sarri sent the ball to the roof of the net off the first penalty corner in the 40th minute to break the goal jinx and then, four minutes before the hooter, Md. Shamim added another.
India were playing with a player less when the second goal came as defender Sukhmanpreet was shown a yellow card for a body tackle. The Malaysians thus reached the final of the Junior Asia only for second time after 1992 when they incidentally defeated India in the semis.
The match did not rise to the expected level, with each side contend to play the waiting game. Once Malaysia struck against the run of play, the Indians pressed hard and created many chances but were clueless to make use of them. India withered a few entries into the circle by the hosts, and then gradually took control of the proceedings.
The Malaysians found it hard to score despite full stands egging them on. India created umpteen moves in the last ten minutes of the first session but failed to capitalise. Sukhdev twice, Sukhdeep Singh and Malak Singh and Naveen Antil came close to scoring but were inaccurate and wayward in shooting. Hockey teams from China, India, Iran, Japan, Korea, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Malaysia participated in the 10-day-long 7th Junior Asia Hockey Cup tournament.