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Australia hold Pakistan 2-2
Olympic champions Australia held a fired up Pakistan 2-2 in a thrilling preliminary match of the Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament today.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 09:52 AM IST
Read Time:2 min
Kuala Lumpur:
Olympic champions Australia held a fired up Pakistan 2-2 in a thrilling preliminary match of the Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament at the Bukit Jalil stadium here today. Pakistan produced a consistent top flight attack to dominate the more fancied squad even though they went into the break tied 1-1. While their forwards moved in cohesion, the midfield and defence stood out admirably crippling the Aussie sorties time and again. Pakistan should have broken the ice in the opening minute itself when Tariq Aziz put Shakeel Abbasi through, but the striker narrowly missed the mark. However, it was not a long wait for the three time champions and leaders of this tournament to forge ahead, when Abbasi deflected home a spectacular Rehan Butt cross in the 3rd minute (1-0). Abbassi shines The Pakistan right winger constantly dodged the Australia defence and entered the rival striking circle regularly and with the crafty Quetta-born Abbasi was their nemesis. One sure-shot goal was disallowed by umpire Javed Sheikh of India, when Abbassi deflected a Butt centre past goalkeeper Stephen Lambert. The umpire however ruled the cross dangerous, much to Australia's relief. Pakistan could have increased their lead on a few more occasions, but first Butt pushed wide followed by misses from centre forward Tariq Aziz and then Mudassar Ali Khan. (PTI)Topics mentioned in this article
Hockey
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