JAKARTA: Pakistan pummelled minnows Oman 10-0 to register their second straight 10-0 victory of the 2018 Asian Games Hockey Tournament at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium here Wednesday. In other matches of the day, Japan were given a scare by hosts Indonesia in their second Group A match when they scrape through with 3-1 win. For the Indonesians, who are playing in only their second Asian games, scoring the goal was an achievement. In the opening game, they had lost 0-17 to India. They last played in the 1962 Games which were also held in Jakarta. India scored 26 goals against Hong Kong China in their second match in Pool A match. This was India’s highest margin of victory since the 1932 Olympics when they defeated the United States 24-1. Former champions South Korea turned in a comfortable performance to beat Sri Lanka 8-0 in a Group A. The Koreans had beaten Hong Kong 11-0 in their opening match and top their group for now. Malaysia had another easy win, this time beating Thailand 10-0. Coming off a 16-2 win over Kazakhstan in their opening match on Monday, the Malaysians were more disciplined in defense and totally dominated the match, refraining their opponents to a handful of forays into their semi-circle.
In the scoresheet, Pakistan had six different players amongst the scorers with Ali Shan scoring three, Muhammad Dilber and Muhammad Irfan scoring two each. “It was a rather slow start but once we increased the momentum the goals started to come. It is good to see so many players getting on the scoresheet and this shows that we do not rely on certain players to get the goals, said Pakistan’s Muhammad Rizwan. “We, however, need to improve our penalty corner conversion rate as that could make a difference between winning or losing a match. Overall, it was a decent performance and we are pleased with the score.” Pakistan had defeated Thailand 10-0 in their opening match on Monday while Oman lost narrowly to Bangladesh 1-2. Umar Bhutta scored in the first two minutes to weave past the Omani defense to give Pakistan the lead. Seconds before halftime, Ajaz Ahmad put Pakistan 2-0 up. The goal stood after a Video Referral by Oman was turned down. Till halftime, Pakistan had four penalty corners but had failed to capitalize on them.
However, Pakistan picked up their game post their fifth penalty corner in the 34th minute, as Mohamad Irfan made no mistake to drive the ball home and put his team 3-0 ahead. Ali Shan capitalize on the Omani defense to slot home the fourth goal from close range in the 37th minute. Muhammad Dilber became the fifth player for Pakistan to score in this match with a field goal in the 40th minute. A minute later it was the turn of Muhammad Atiq to get his name amongst the scorers and Pakistan were cruising to another easy win. The seventh goal was netted by Ali Shan after a breakthrough on the right by Umar Bhutta in the 44th minute. Dilber netted his second and Pakistan’s eight in the 49th minute before Ali Shan completed his hat-trick in the 55th minute to make it 9-0. Irfan put the icing on the cake with his second of the night in the 59th minute to give Pakistan a 10-0 win.
Published in Daily Times, August 25th 2018.
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