Australia whip hapless Pakistan 7-0 in hockey mismatch

BIRMINGHAM: Pakistan crashed out of the race for the semi-finals when they were demolished by defending champions Australia 7-0 in their Group A final league game of the Commonwealth Games men’s hockey event here at the University of Birmingham on Thursday night.

With the blow Pakistan ended their group journey at the fourth place with just four points to their credit. They will now face Canada in the 7th-8th place game here on Saturday (today).

Going into the game with just four points from two matches the Green-shirts needed some miracle to topple the Aussies, who have been too ruthless in this ten-nation event.

Pakistan did not show any resolve in the entire show which was dominated by Australia who topped the group and had already made it to the semi-finals even before their meeting with the Green-shirts.

Jeremy Hayward and Tom Wickham hit two goals apiece while Jacob Anderson, Blake Govers and Nathan Ephraums netted one goal each in the contest where Pakistan failed to impress much.

Following fine rallies from either sides Australia got onto the scoresheet in the 12th minute when Blake Govers found the net. They doubled their lead in the 19th minute through Jeremy’s penalty corner conversion. And at the end of the second quarter, Australia were leading 2-0. In the third quarter Australia looked too ruthless and they stretched their lead to 4-0 when Jeremy converted a penalty corner in the 40th minute before Tom Wickham struck a field goal two minutes later.

Pakistan at this stage tried to reduce the deficit but their frontline failed to capitalise on an opportunity.

In the fourth quarter Australia built on their aggression and hit their fifth goal through Tom Wickham in the 48th minute. In the 53rd minute Jacob Anderson struck sixth goal for Australia before Nathan Ephraums landing a fine goal in the 59th minute to complete a thumping win.

Pakistan manager and former Olympian Sameer Hussain was unhappy with the performance.

“It was a poor show from us,” Sameer told 'The News'.

“In the first two quarters we played well but the team got down after that,” the former Olympian said. “In the last quarter we conceded some soft goals as our keeper Akmal Hussain, who played well in the entire tournament, lost his focus,” Sameer added.

“The big issue is that there is a huge experience gap and only with the time and international exposure we will be able to match such teams,” he said.

However, he was confident that Pakistan would beat Canada on Saturday to at least claim seventh position.

“Canada is also better than us in rankings but we will inshaAllah beat them,” he said.

Pakistan had started the event well when they had held South Africa to a 2-2 draw in their opener. However in their second game they were crushed by New Zealand 4-1.

Australia (12 points) and South Africa (7 points) qualified for the semi-finals from this group while Pakistan finished fourth with just four points.