KARACHI, 14 March 2005 — Pakistan avenged their last year’s Junior Asia Cup final defeat against India when they blanked the reigning world youth champions 2-0 to claim the Four-Nation Junior Invitational hockey title at the National Hockey Stadium in Lahore yesterday.
The hosts, who were outclassed by India 5-2 in the Junior Asia Cup title clash in Karachi last April, struck once in each half to win the quadrangular event that also featured South Africa and Japan.
Pierre Jeldelhuys scored two goals to help South Africa beat Japan 4-2 in the play-off for the third place.
Skipper Shakeel Abbasi and Kashif Yaqoob scored the goals for Pakistan.
It was Pakistan’s second victory over India in five days as Shakeel Abbasi’s men had also beaten them 3-0 in the league stage of the week-long tournament.
India were in much better form in the final but a series of missed opportunities together with a few controversial calls from the umpire denied them victory.
Umpire Peter Wright disallowed an Indian goal in the dying moments of the first half and then awarded Pakistan their second strike though video replays showed that Kashif Yaqoob had fouled while putting the ball in the net with a tennis-like overhead volley.
In spite of being two goals down, the Indians exerted a lot of pressure on the Pakistani defense and it was mainly because of resolute home team goalkeeper Nasir Ahmed that the visitors failed in their efforts.
It was a commendable performance by the Indian Juniors considering the fact that they were without several of their key players including short corner specialist Sandeep Singh. Pakistan drew first blood when Abbasi made it 1-0 with a soft deflection off a long pass in the 7th minute.
