South Africa holds Pakistan to 1-1 draw

Melbourne, Mar 19 (UNI) Underrated South Africa surprised formidable Pakistan holding them to a 2-2 draw in the men's hockey competition of the Commonwealth Games here today.

After a barren first half, Pakistan conceded a goal in the second half and equalised after desperate efforts as South Africa built a rock-like defence around their custodian Christopher Hibbert.

Pakistan, who beat India 4-1 in their opening match, failed to counter the tight man-to-man marking of their opponents and found it hard to do much in the striking circle as majority of the South African players assembled there to avert any setback.

Their strategy worked out well and the Pakistani forwards though landed in the striking circle, missed all such sitters with one reason to another, lacking proper finish, coordination and most significantly with erratic shooting.

After wasting first two short corners in the 20th and 33rd minutes, Pakistani forwards including Shakeel Abbasi, Rehan Butt, Mudassar Ali and Muhammad Shabbir missed a series of chances while in possession of ball in the heart of the circle.

South Africa, missing their lone short corner in the 21st minute, gave a big scare to their much fancied rivals by stamping their supremacy with the 52nd minute goal.

As Pakistan lost their third penalty corner in the 51st minute, South African unmarked forward Reece Basson launched solo efforts from the half line with no Pakistani defender in sight. Though Dilwar Hussain tamely followed him but the agile forward continued his superb sprint and left him behind before superbly hitting the ball in the left corner nets with a stinging shot amid rousing applause from a big gathering on a cold day under windy conditions.

Conceding a goal served as a wake up call for the Pakistani side which spent all force hunting for the equaliser but Rehan Butt and Mudassar wasted chances with reverse shots and Shabbir and Adnan Maqsood failed to show way to the ball to the post after goalkeeper and most of defenders were beaten by the earlier attack.

With South African side gaining aggression to put more pressure on their rivals, Pakistan lost their fourth short corner and then came the luckiest moment of the match for them when Imran Warsi translated the fifth into a goal placing the ball in the nets in the 67th minute, much to the relief of the team members and the team management.

Pakistan come close to take the lead off the sixth short corner in the following minute but in an indirect drill they failed to make an impression.

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