JOHOR BARU: The India versus Pakistan match was supposed to be a closely-fought affair.
Instead, it was India all the way as they hammered Pakistan 6-0 in their Sultan of Johor Cup match at the Taman Daya Stadium here on Wednesday.
Armann Qureshi scored a brace in the 49th and 69th minutes while Imran Khan (22nd), Parvinder Singh (34th), Harmanpreet Singh (53rd) and Varun Kumar (67th) netted one apiece against their arch-rivals.
India now have six points from two wins and a loss. They have two matches left – against Malaysia on Thursday and Australia on Saturday.
India coach Harendra Singh was full of praise for his boys.
“We won because my boys controlled their emotions and played a fast attacking hockey,” said the former international.
“It is the biggest margin of victory over Pakistan ... but we still have room for improvement.
There was more excitement in an earlier match when Australia scored four goals in the last 19 minutes to edge New Zealand 4-3 at the same venue.
The Australians have seven points from three matches. They had defeated Malaysia 2-1 and drawn 1-1 with Pakistan.
The Kiwis, like Pakistan, have only one point in the bag. But, judging by yesterday’s performance, the Kiwis certainly didn’t look like a team struggling for form.
Nick Woods gave the Kiwis the lead in the third minute off a penalty corner and they doubled the score with another penalty corner goal, this time by Danial Panchia, in the 35th minute.
The Kiwis continued to press and made it 3-0 with a field goal by Kim Kingstone in 41st minute.
But kudos to Australia for not giving up.
Four goals in 10 minutes – courtesy of Andrew Scanlon (51st), Joshua Bretherton (54th), Oliver Crane (57th) and Max Hendry (61st) – did the trick for the Aussies.
Australian coach Ben Bishop was delighted with the fighting spirit shown by his boys.
“Both teams played well. We had to make some changes to our strategy to save the match we did just that,” he said.
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