NAIROBI Reuter: India won a five nation pre-Olympic hockey tournament on Sunday, beating Olympic champions Pakistan in a penalty shootout in the final after the sides had finished’22 with extra time.
India took the lead in the eighth minute through their outstanding inside left Thoiba Singh, who netted a field goal from a long corner after Pakistan substitute goalkeeper Rizwan Munir had cleared the ball clumsily.
But then Pakistan’s inside left Mussaadog Hossain struck back after 29 minutes to equalize and the score remained level until the end of ordinary time.
Pakistan went into the lead for the first time immediately after the start of extra time through inside right Shabz Ahmed, who dribbled through India’s defense to hammer in a brilliant field goal.
But India piled on the pressure and five minutes later were back on level terms throughout side left Gunadeep Singh. Fullback Pargat Singh began the move, passing to outside right Jude Felix who sent away inside right Balwinder Singh to lay on the final pass to Gunadeep, who was well positioned to score.
With the final score level, the tournament was settled through penalties.
India’s Sujit Kumar, Vivek Singh and Balwinder Singh scored, while Jude Felix and Mervyn Fernandes missed. But Pakistan’s five penalties —shot by Qazi Mohib, Anjum Saeed, Tahir Zaman, Ishtiaq Ahmed and Zahid Sharif were all saved by goalkeeper Mark Patterson.
The Soviet Union finished third after beating Kenya A, leaving fifth place to Canada and sixth to Kenya B.
The young Soviet side surprised the capacity crowd by proving too strong for the Kenyans. Their goals came through outside right Evgent Nethaer after 27 minutes, Centre forward Andrei Serokin a minute later and outside left Michael Lyutikor from a short corner after 48 minutes.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 24, 1988
