Australia ended Pakistan’s two-year unbeaten run in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup when they defeated the defending champions 5-3 in the opening match here Thursday. The Australians, who have also won the field hockey tournament on two occasions, controlled the midfield with Jamie Dwyer and Michael McCann running rings round their opponents.
Australia’s awesome display confirmed their status as tournament favourites and they would have come away with an even more emphatic win but for a lapse in concentration to let in two soft goals late on.
Australia opened the scoring after 10 minutes when Matthew Smith finished off a quick counterattack with a shot from close range. It took the Pakistanis only three minutes to find the equaliser when penalty corner specialist Sohail Abbas converted their third corner of the match with a low flick. But that turned out to be the Asian giants’ only worthwhile moment in the opening 35 minutes.
The match’s best goal came in the 17th minute after some intricate one-touch passing between Brent Livermore and Jeremy Hiskins carved open the Pakistani defence, presenting McCann with a gift-wrapped opportunity to make it 2-1.
Troy Elder killed the match off when he sounded the board in the 38th minute and seven minutes later, he converted a penalty stroke to make it 4-1. Smith, who was voted man of the match, made it 5-1 with a simple tap-in after some good approach play from the right. Pakistan reduced the deficit through two penalty corner goals via Atif Bashir in the 51st minute and Muhammad Nadeem in the 66th but it was too little, too late.