India beat Pakistan in Youth Hockey Asian Championship

Indian sub-junior boys defeated arch-rivals Pakistan 7-3 and hosts Oman 10-1 to enjoy a triumphant Friday at the FIH Youth Hockey5s Asian Championship here.

The Indian sub-junior girls, meanwhile, put up a spirited fight before going down 3-6 to China in their Elite Pool match. The Indian boys took early control against Pakistan, leading 3-0 at half-time thanks to goals from Romit Pal (8’), Karan Gautam (10’) and captain Ketan Kushwaha (10’). They maintained the momentum in the second half, with Prahalad Rajbhar (12’) extending the lead to 4-0. Pakistan attempted a comeback through Muhammad Usman (12’, 15’) and captain Adeel (17’), but strikes from Shahrukh Ali (16’), Rahul Yadav (18’) and Kushwaha (20’) sealed a comfortable victory for India.

Earlier in the day, India thrashed Oman 10-1. The Indians stormed to a 6-0 lead at half-time, powered by two goals each from Shahrukh Ali (3’, 10’) and Ketan Kushwaha (6’, 8’), along with strikes from Karan Gautam (2’) and Prahalad Rajbhar (3’).

India added four more goals in the second half, with Kushwaha (11’, 19’) completing a four-goal haul, while Gautam (15’) and Rajbhar (16’) scored their second goals of the match. In the girls’ match, India were locked 3-3 with China at half-time. Sandeepa Kumari (1’) gave India an early lead, while Kiran Ekka (3’, 6’) scored a brace to match China’s first-half goals from Guo Jiaxin (2’), Ge Chen (3’) and Lu Tongtong (10’).

China pulled away in the second half as Guo Jiaxin (13’, 20’) completed her hat-trick and Lu Tongtong (20’) added her second goal of the match to secure victory.

The tournament also serves as the Asian qualifier for the inaugural FIH Youth Hockey5s World Cup. Meanwhile, the Pakistan hockey team management was left red-faced when the umpires penalised the side for fielding six instead of five players against India in the five-a-side international event.

The incident took place on Friday night when, as soon as the match started, the umpires spotted six Pakistani players on the field whereas only five are allowed.

As a result, the umpires sent out two players, leaving Pakistan with just three players on the field and India took full advantage of the comic situation, slamming in 8 goals. A reliable source said that when the interim President of the Pakistan Hockey Federation learnt about the incident, he was pretty upset and has demanded an explanation from the team management, which includes chief coach Tahir Zaman and coaches Rehan Butt, Qamar Ibrahim and Umar Bhutta.

Apparently, the management has conveyed that the misunderstanding happened because of some players not understanding the communication with the coaches.

In the 2022 Men’s Hockey Asia Cup held in Jakarta also a similar blunder from the Pakistan hockey team management resulted in Pakistan losing a qualification match to Japan after their late goal equaliser was disallowed by the umpires as they had 12 players instead of 11 on the field.

The outcome eventually resulted in Pakistan not qualifying for the 2023 World Cup and head coach Khawaja Junaid being handed a life ban by the PHF.

But the ban was lifted and Junaid is now in the main fold of the senior team management.