–The green shirts beat second-ranked Argentina by 4-1 after three consecutive defeats
NETHERLANDS: Pakistan outclassed Argentina, the second-ranked team in the world, by 4-1 in the Hockey Champions Trophy on Thursday.
This is the first victory for green shirts in the tournament. In the previous games, Pakistani team faced three back-to-back defeats against India, Australia and Netherlands.
Pakistan won the inaugural edition of the Champions Trophy held in Lahore in 1978 by beating Australia in the final.
Four years later, Pakistan picked up their second title beating West Germany in Karachi. The last time Pakistan picked up the Champions Trophy title was in 1994 in Lahore, when they beat Germany (7–6) on penalty strokes.
Not only does Pakistan have three titles under its belt, the green shirts have finished as runner-up seven times in the tournament in 1983, 1984, 1988, 1991, 1996, 1998, and 2014.
Six teams are taking part in this year’s tournament, which is the last edition of the Champions Trophy. The tournament will be replaced by the Hockey Pro League (HPL) in 2019.
Apart from hosts the Netherlands, Australia, Argentina, Belgium, India and Pakistan are taking part in the tournament from June 23 to July 1.
Pakistan’s next game will be against Argentina on June 28 followed by match against Belgium on June 29.
PAKISTAN SQUAD:
M Rizwan Sr (captain), Imran Butt, Amjad Ali, M Irfan Sr, Mubashir Ali, Aleem Bilal, Ammad Shakeel Butt, Touseeq Arshad, Rashid Mahmood, Tasawar Abbas, Abu Bakar, M Irfan Jr, Arslan Qadir, Umar Bhutta, Shafqat Rasool, Ali Shan, Azfar Yaqoob and Aijaz Ahmed.
