KARACHI, 11 March 2005 — Hosts Pakistan hammered South Africa 4-1 to their third consecutive victory in the Four-Nation Junior Invitational Hockey Tournament while India struggled to beat minnows Japan 2-1 as the tournament’s round-robin league concluded yesterday at the National Hockey Stadium in Lahore.
Pakistan’s short corner specialist Imran Warsi showed his class with a double strike as the team’s attack led by Olympian Shakeel Abbasi sparkled to completely outclass the South Africans.
Shakeel Abbasi scored the other two goals.
With the comfortable win, Pakistan confirmed a semifinal clash with fourth-placed Japan. India will meet South Africa in the other last-four match.
The event’s organizers have made changes in the format and have decided to have semifinals in order to give more match practice to the competing teams. The quadrangular event is one of the series of warm-up tournaments to be held in various countries as buildup to the Junior World Cup in Rotterdam, Holland.
Pakistan, using the tournament as a launch pad for their campaign to regain the world junior title, have been in full flow since beating Japan 4-2, a result followed by a 3-0 triumph over India.
Abbasi gave Pakistan a perfect start when he scored an early field goal as Warsi consolidated the hosts position when he struck twice off short corners within a span of eight minutes to make it 3-0 for Pakistan. Abbasi added to South Africa’s woes with a 33rd minute strike as Pakistan led 4-0 at half-time.
South Africa gave an improved performance in the second session as they held the Pakistani attack at bay and also scored a consolation goal, a 51st short corner strike from Pierry Geldenhuys.
In the other match of the day, India managed to avert a series of Japanese attacks in the dying moments of an action-packed encounter to record their first win of the competition.
India led 2-0 in the first half with goals coming from Birender Lakra and Hari Prasad but failed to hold their grip of the proceedings in the final session. Japan struck back with a 43rd minute goal from Kei Kawakami and looked threatening in the last quarter of the match but a resolute Indian defense thwarted all their attempts for an equalizer.
