Pak-NZ Hockey match ends in draw
Spain beat Australia, Dutch down SA

Monchengladbach (Germany)—Twice in arrears, Pakistan fought back to force a 4-4 draw with New Zealand in a pool ‘A’ game of the 11th FIH men’s hockey World Cup here today.

In a hotly contested match, Pakistan looked in danger of losing when New Zealand led 4-3 with five minutes left, but Muhammad Zubair found the net from a melee for his second goal of the game to tie the scores and then Sohail Abbas wasted a penalty corner seconds before close.

For the Kiwis, who have never finished higher than seventh in six appearances in the World Cup, Dean Couzins (15th, 36th, penalty strokes), Blair Hopping (18th) and Hayden Shaw (54th) scored while Pakistan reply came from Shakeel Abbasi (9th, penalty stroke), Rehan Butt (43rd), Muhammad Zubair (21st, 65th).

Both teams, who both won their previous matches, thus picked up a point apiece.

The match witnessed dramatic twists and turns with three penalty strokes, two of them to the Kiwis being awarded.

Pakistan strongly disputed the second stroke that umpire David Leiper signaled after a rising shot to goal struck a defender. The Pakistanis claimed for dangerous play, but the umpire stuck to his decision.

Of the eight goals, the best was by Butt who capped a brilliant solo run with a spanking reverse hit to the boards from a difficult angle.

In another match Spain defeated Olympic champions Australia 3-1 in their opening match of the men’s World Cup on Thursday.

Earlier India lost 3-2 to England, Pakistan defeated Japan 4-0 and the Netherlands beat South Africa 2-0.

Spain and Australia are favourites to move to the semi-finals from Pool A with New Zealand and Pakistan the only challengers.

‘This is the match we have prepared for all summer’

Spain’s win gives them a clear run to the semi finals and Australia must now win all their remaining matches in Pool A to be sure of a semi finals berth.

“This is the match we have prepared for all summer to achieve a good result,” said Maurits Hendriks, Spain’s coach.

“We have played Australia nine times in 2006 and each match has been tough and with close results and this time we were able to control the match,” Hendriks said.

Spain jumped out to a 2-0 lead after twenty minutes with field goals by Eduard Tubau and Pol Amat coming from defensive mistakes in Australia’s backfield.

Australia hit the post twice in the first half.

“We had more possession than Spain but they converted the opportunities they had and we did not,” said Barry Dancer, Australia’s coach.

“Spain defended well in the second half in depth while we did not take the opportunities we had for penalty corner conversions, which is a crucial part of the game, because we had execution problems on penalty corners,” said Dancer.

Xavier Ribas converted a penalty corner to take Spain to a 3-0 lead early in the second half and Troy Elder managed one penalty corner conversion from four chances in the second half.

“I take responsibility for some of the calls I made for the penalty corners,” Dancer added.—Agencies