SYDNEY, June 6: Having put themselves in a comfortable position for a place in the final, a confident India would be keen to maintain their dominance over arch-rivals Pakistan in their last second-leg league match of three-nation invitational hockey tournament here Saturday.
The Indians need only a draw to cruise into the final for the second time in the competition and pressure will be squarely on Pakistan in what promises to be a classic duel of skill and nerves.
The Pakistanis, handicapped by absence of three senior players, have been struggling to make a mark in the tournament but will be determined to avenge first-leg defeat at the hands of their traditional rivals.
The team, which went without a win in the first leg, broke the sequence with a solitary goal victory against Australia ‘A’ but 3-4 loss against Australia Thursday has left them with no option but to get better of the Indians to keep their hopes of making it to the final alive.
Though Indians appear quite confident of beating the Pakistanis, coach Rajinder Singh has warned his boys not to get too complacent as their rivals were quite capable of turning the table on any fancied team.
“We will have to play really well to beat a vastly improved Pakistani side, who have played superbly in their last two matches. They are limping back to their usual form and we will go all out to beat them tomorrow,” Rajinder Singh said.
PHF NOT WORRIED
KARACHI: The national hockey team is getting due exposure in tournament matches, Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) Secreatary, Brig. Musarratullah said on Friday at Hockey Club of Pakistan (HCP) while commenting on team’s dismal performance in Hockey Australia Men’s Challenge Tournament.
“ As far as team’s performance is concerned it has not been was not satisfactory but the exposure boys are getting is satisfactory”. he said.
He opined that for the last three years boys did not get chance to practise in the country as not a single foreign team tour was arranged. He maintained “only this sort of exposure is the only way for us to groom new players”.
“As compared to the first leg, team is performing well in the second leg. This means that they are gaining at least some confidence from the matches” Brig said.
He said that gradually in the second leg the boys according to the results beat Australia A by 1-0 and lost the match 3-4 against Australia and shows the improvement and the benefit of giving the chance to the youngsters.
He said that the good thing is the new boys will get the due confidence, which is crucial for further assignments of the national team.—PPI
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