Pakistan retains gold in SAG hockey

Pakistan retained its gold in the hockey event of the South Asian Games defeating arch rival India 4-3 in tie-breakers in the final at Moulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium in Dhaka on Sunday (February 7).

The match rolled into the tie-breakers after the regulation and extra time ended in a one-all draw.

India tried to subdue the Pakistanis from the beginning with a flurry of moves and took an early lead when skipper Ajitesh Roy scored from a penalty corner just six minutes after the push-off.

Pakistan players toiled hard for an equaliser in the remainder of the first session but their efforts went futile as their goal-shy forwards frittered away some easy chances.

Pakistan, which lost to India 5-1 in the preliminary-round match, started to gain rhythm as the second half wore on and the defending champions returned to the contention when Wasif Siddque converted a penalty corner on 45 minutes to put the match on an even keel.

With the regulation time ended in a 1-1 draw and the extra 15 minutes also failed to separate the two teams, the play moved into the tie-breakers.

Wasif Siddique, Kashif Javid, Tasawar Abbass and captain Sabtain Raza scored goals in the shoot-out, while Zeeshan Ali missed the target for Pakistan.

V. Raghunath, Innocent and Vikash scored for India, while Pakistan goalkeeper Imran Butt foiled the attempts of Varinder and Dharamveer Singh to bring off the second successive gold in the South Asian Games for his country.

Earlier, Pakistan won gold in hockey in the South Asian Games in 2006 and India in 1995.

Pakistan: Imran Butt (Goalkeeper), Mohammad Khalid, Wasif Siddique, Zeeshan Ali, Mohsin Bilal, Aamir Shahzad, Waqas Akbar, Abdul Qayyum, Abdul Khaliq, Sabtain Raza (Captain), Naghman Ahmed, Kashif Javid, Mohammad Waqas, Zubair Ahmed, Tasawar Abbass and Mohammad Salim.

India: Mrinal, Harjit (Goalkeeper), Birendra, Belsajar, Innocent, Varinder, Hamza, Vikash, Dharamaveer Singh, Mohammad Aamir, V. Raghunath, Ajitesh Roy (Captain), Amit Kumar, Roshan, Promod and Bikash.