KARACHI - Whenever Chinese sports teams have appeared in Pakistan in the past they adopted the slogan” Friendship first competition second”. The same slogan revisited the Hockey Club of Pakistan here on Wednesday afternoon when the Chinese hockey team went down to Pakistan by 0-3 margin in the first test of the China Pakistan Friendship hockey series which has heralded return of international hockey to Pakistan.
Federal Interior Minister A Rehman Malik was the guest of honour at the inauguration of the four-test hockey series Other three matches of the series will be played at HCP Karachi today (Thursday), Faislabad on December 24 and Lahore on December 25. Other prominent personalities who attended the historic match were Sindh Sports Minister Dr M A Shah, president PHF former Olympian Qasim Zia, secretary Asif Bajwa. A number of former Olympians and international hockey players were invited to witness the contest.
It was expected that a sizable crowd would come to see the return of international hockey but the attendance at the HCP was very poor.
Pakistan scored all of its goals through penalty-corners starting in 15th minute when Irfan converted to give the host one goal lead. Captain Imran doubled that advantage when he scored in 23rd minute. Pakistan led 2-0 at half time.
Third Pakistan goal came in the second session when Tousiq converted a penalty corner in the 51st minute.
Pakistan earned six penalty corners and got three goals while the Chinese playing free flowing hockey also earned four PC but could not get any goal, thanks to the Pakistani keeper Imran Shah who stood between the attackers and the goal. The most surprising aspect of Pakistani performance was that it could not get a goal from field efforts though Pakistanis played attacking hockey and found easy passage to the striking circle. If Pakistanis had converted half of the chances that came through field movements the winning margin could easily have been double. In the early stages of the match Pakistan dominated the play and moved freely in the Chinese circle but missed at least three chances before the host took the lead. Zubair and Shakeel Abbasi missed one after the other in a two minute attack.
Later in the game a reverse hit from striker Haseem Khan rebounded off the upright. The Chinese also had enough chances to score but they were weak in finishing their moves. Twice when they surprised a strong Pakistani defence to enter the circle they could not place the ball in open net. Chinese had some difficulty in adapting to the pace of the turf.
They however excelled in basics of the game. The only weak point of the Chinese team was they could convert a short-corner.
Pakistan's performance was also not convincing and need to improve their performance in the mid field and they should sharpen their open field scoring.