LAHORE: Pakistan received a drubbing against low-ranked Japan in what was their second loss in as many matches in the four-nation International Festival of Hockey at Melbourne’s State Netball and Hockey Centre on Thursday. The speedy Japanese side dominated the proceedings throughout the game, easily defeating the Green Shirts 3-1. Pakistan received their worst-ever defeat in hockey against Australia in their previous match when they lost 1-9 to the hosts. All four goals in yesterday’s match came through open play, with Pakistan scoring their goal in the last minute of the game.
Japan opened the scoring with a field goal courtesy Kenta Tanaka in the 14th minute. Pakistan were unable to answer with a goal, as Japan were able to maintain the lead till the end of the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, Tanaka once again found the net in the 46th minute to double his team’s lead. Genki Mitani then delivered the killer blow with a goal in the 50th minute to push Japan 3-0 up. Pakistan were able to salvage some respect when Mohammad Atiq scored for them in the last minute of the match as the match ended 3-1, with the Green Shirts reeling at the bottom of the league table with two consecutive defeats in their first two matches. “This is not good,” captain Mohammad Irfan said. “We lost to a team that is ranked lower than us. We need to work a lot on some aspects of our game to turn things around.” He continued by saying that the team needed to buckle up. “This performance is not satisfactory and we need to buckle up for the next match. We will try to put up a better performance in the next match, but we don’t have much time to gather ourselves since we are playing back-to-back matches.” Pakistan play their next match against New Zealand on Saturday. In the day’s other match, hosts Australia defeated New Zealand 4-1.
Scorers:
Japan: Kenty Tanaka (14 min & 46 min) and Genki Matani (50 min)
Pakistan: Atiq Arshad (60 min).
Published in Daily Times, November 10th 2017.