Britain beat Pakistan to reach World Hockey League semis

Though the last match of India saw a defeat, their performance and potential can not be underestimated because they lost only one match in this whole league that too against the Australians.

Reigning world champions Australia were given a real test by Ireland’s Green Machine before eventually running out winners in the quarter-final.

Pakistan must at least reach the semi-finals if they are to finish in the top three and qualify for Rio Olympics. Pakistan team unable to deliver a good game in ongoing tournament. “But we have other games and it is important that we try to finish fifth”.

Having beaten the hosts 4-3, thanks to a goal in the dying stages of that match, the Pakistani players engaged in over the top celebrations.

In an eventful opening quarter, Great Britain took the lead with a stunning goal from East Grinstead’s Chris Griffiths.

Griffiths’ spectacular goal in the fourth minute ensured the flawless start before Brogdon’s fourth of the tournament doubled the lead five minutes later. M Waqas came closest to grabbing an equaliser, but Great Britain shot-stopper George Pinner stood strong to deny the strike from the right and seal a crucial win for his country.

Marlow’s Barry Middleton, who captained the side, said: “We made it tough in the end”.

“When you’re only 2-0 up against a team like Pakistan who commit a lot of people forward it always looks close but we defended very well”.

Pakistan missed several penalty corners and also failed to stop opponent team from scoring goals.

However, Sheikh ruled out sacrificing attack in order to shore up the defence, saying that the men in green will continue to play enterprising hockey. Razie Rahim and Shahril Saabah were the scorers for Malaysia.

Earlier Australia prevailed in an absorbing quarter-final against Ireland, on the back of goals to Matt Gohdes, Jamie Dwyer, Simon Orchard and and the tournament’s leading goalscorer Blake Govers. Pakistan, however, will find themselves under pressure given the fact that they scraped to a 2-1 win over Poland, and got hammered 6-1 by Australia. But China stunned their rivals through goals from Guo Xiaoping and Du Chen.

Sardar Singh said that even though there’s not much at stake for his team in this tournament, they are keen to take this opportunity to produce positive results ahead of the World League Finals.