Rampant Pak shut out India’s qualifying hopes

The match was a classic exhibition of hockey artistry,the usual case when the two sides clash,but India failed to take their chances. They now face Argentina for the third-place play-off.

Pakistan will play New Zealand in the final and the winner will qualify for the 2010 Champions Trophy in Monchengladbach,Germany. New Zealand beat Argentina 3-2 in the other semi-final.

All the Indian goals came from penalty corners,through Dhananjay Mahadik (eighth and 62nd minutes) and Diwakar Ram (67th minute).

For Pakistan,Rehan Butt (2nd,29th and 64th) scored a hat-trick of field goals while Sohail Abbas (32nd,70th) found the target twice and Haseem Khan (58th) got one.

As early as in the second minute,goalkeeper Adrian D’Souza failed to stop a seemingly harmless shot from Butt to concede the lead and from then on,India were just trying to catch up. They did equalise quickly enough — in the eighth minute — with Dhananjay Mahadik sounding the board with a well-executed penalty corner.

There was little,however,that D’Souza could do after a spectacular shot from Butt in 29th minute which gave Pakistan the lead again. Penalty-corner specialist Abbas then found the target three minutes later.

After the break,India got a couple of chances,only to waste them. They had a long period of domination,with a big chance for Rajpal Singh after a quick series of passes in the circle,but his deflection on the far post was just wide.

Haseem Khan took advantage of the huge gaps in the Indian defence and scored in the 58th minute. A flurry of four goals then followed. Dhananjay Mahadik scored from a penalty-corner in the 62nd minute to make it 4-2 but Butt got back Pakistan’s three-goal lead two minutes later.

Diwakar converted a penalty corner three minutes from time but Abbas made it 6-3 in the last minute via a penalty stroke.