LONDON, Reuter: Holders Pakistan lost their change of retaining the World Cup Hockey title when they were beaten 31 by England, their third defeat in four pool a matches.
For England it was a first ever victory over the Olympic champions who won the World Cup in Buenos Aires in 1978 and retained it four years ago in Bombay.
In front of an 11,000 crowd at Willesden Stadium, England soon established control, taking the lead after eight minutes.
Imran Sherwani’s goalbound shot was illegally blocked on the line by Qasim Zia, Pakistan’s hat trick hero against New Zealand on Wednesday, and full back Jon Potter lifted his penalty flick high into the roof of the net.
England, alert and committed throughout the first half, went two up after 21 minutes when Sean Kerly scored with an angled shot to register his third goal of the tournament.
Outplayed and clearly rattled early on, Pakistan tested England’s goalkeeper Ian Taylor twice in quick succession on the half hour ‘but Taylor was equal to the efforts from Hassan Sardar and Kalleemullah.
Taylor, though, gave away 2 penalty 10 minutes into the second half when he brought down Hassan Sardar after a mistake by Paul Barber and Kaleem ullah’s goal put Pakistan back in contention.
But another penalty to England: 10 minutes later when Sherwani’s shot was again stopped illegally by the unfortunate Zia enabled Potter, this time shooting into a bottom corner, 10 restore the host nation’s two goal advantage.
TEAMS: ENGLAND: Jan Taylor, Paul Barber, Richard Dodds (Capt), Jon Potter, David Faulkner, Steve Batchelor, Martyn Grimley, Sean Kerly, Norman Hughes, Imran Sherwani, Richard Leman (Sub: Robert Clift).
PAKISTAN: Mansoor Ahmad, Nasir Ali (Qasib Mohib), Abdul Rashid, Ayaz Mahmood, Shahid UI Islam (Iftikhar), Kaléemullah (Capt.) Shahbaz Ahmed, Hassan Sardar, Farhat Hasan Khan, Pervaiz Iqbal, Qasim Zia.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 17, 1986
