Pakistan edge past India in hockey final
Dhaka, Feb. 7: The experienced duo of Dharamvir Singh and Varinderjeet Singh misfired in the tie-breaker as India went down 4-5 to archrivals Pakistan and had to be content with a silver medal after a keenly contested hockey summit clash in 11th South Asian Games here on Sunday.
The final was off to a quick start at the Moulana Bhashani Stadium but was settled through a tie-breaker after the stipulated time failed to produce result, with the scores level at 1-1.During the tie-breaker, India struck thrice through V. Raghunath, Innocent Kullu and Vikas Pillay, but two senior team members Dharamvir and Varinderjeet missed their chances as India’s hope of another gold were dashed.Pakistan struck through Wasif Siddique, Kashif Javid and Tasawar Abbas, Zeeshan Ali missed the fourth shot.Skipper Sabtain Raja held his nerve on the crucial fifth shot to settle the issue.Earlier, India took the lead after Raghunath converted a penalty corner in the sixth minute of the match. The Indians dominated the first 35 minutes and went into the break with the lead.But after the changeover Pakistan equalised in the 45th minute when Siddique scooped the ball nicely to find the back of the net. The match also saw some tense moments. With 12 minutes left for the break, the teams got involved in a scuffle when Amit Kumar Prabhakar hit a Pakistan player as both the captains instead of bringing the situation under control got into a fight. Bangladesh police had to interfere to bring the situation under control as match officials sent off both the captains as a warning. — PTI
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