India-Pakistan Hockey Series/ Pakistan clinches series. (merged)

Entertainment Cricket and Other Sports
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An 8 match Hockey Series between Arch rivals India & Pakistan would be played in September/October 2004.This 9th hockey series between the two countries was earlier planned for April-May 2001 and February 2002 at Dubai but had to be postponed because of non-availability of facilities and 11/9 incident. The series is likely to attract a large number of expatriates from the two countries and may become as popular as the previous eight series despite patchy display of two former Giants of Hockey in 28th Olympic Games Hockey Tournament last month.The Indian hockey team will tour Pakistan for the first time in five
years to play four test matches of the 8-match series, before hosting their arch-rivals in a reciprocal series two days later.

Indians would play the Tests in Karachi (Sep 25), Quetta (Sep 27), Peshawar (Sep 29) and Lahore (Oct 1) before hosting the neighbours in the four-match return series from October four to 10.
The opening tie will be played in New Delhi (Oct 4) followed by matches in Chandigarh (Oct 6), Amritsar (Oct 8) and Hyderabad (Oct 10).

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LAHORE: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) on Saturday appointed Asif Bajwa as coach of the national team in place of Tahir Zaman. The national federation also dropped three senior players and recalled Muhammad Saqlain for the upcoming series against India.

“Ahmad Alam, Ali Raza and Muhammad Nadeem [ND] are axed for the series against India,” announced a spokesman for the PHF yesterday. “The national selection committee has recommended that ageing Ahmad, Ali and Nadeem should be relegated especially when the PHF has tough schedule of competitions ahead. The committee also recommended inclusion of Saqlain, 28, as he has still a lot of potential,” he said. It is pertinent to mention here that Nadeem announced his retirement from international hockey on Friday. “Tahir needed a respite after his long association with the national team. Therefore, former Olympian Bajwa has been asked to take up the coaching assignment of the senior squad,” the spokesman added. Bajwa, who is the coach of the junior team, has been given new responsibility in wake of ‘not much activity’ for the junior team in the remaining part of the current year.

Meanwhile, the PHF has invited 21 players for a training camp that commences from September 19 at the Hockey Club of Pakistan in Karachi to prepare the squad for the September 24 to October 10 series between Pakistan and India.

Following have been invited for the camp:

PTCL: Salman Akbar, Ghazanfar Ali, Shakeel Abbasi, Adnan Zakir, Tariq Aziz and Akhtar Ali

NBP: Zeeshan Ashraf, Adnan Maqsood, Imran Warsi, Abdul Aasim Khan

HBL: Kashif Jawad, Imran Khan

WAPDA: Rehan Butt, Mudassar Ali Khan, Shabbir Hussain, Waseem Ahmad, Sohail Abbas

ABL: Muhammad Saqlain

Army: Dilawar Hussain, Muhammad Imran

Sindh: Nasir Ahmad

Team officials: Samiullah Khan (manager), Roelant Oltmans (head coach), Roberto Tolentino (video analyst), Faiz-ur-Rehman (physiotherapist) and Yousaf Baig (team doctor).

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Major shake in Pakistan's hockey team, set-up

Pakistan

September 11, 2004
Pakistan Times, Pakistan

LAHORE: In a major shake after in the back drop of hockey team’s finishing fifth in the Athens Olympics, Pakistan Hockey Federation has sidelined coach Tahir Zaman besides showing exit to three senior players, re-calling Muhammad Saqlain.

Those axed for the test series against India are custodian Ahmad Alam, half line player Ali Raza and forward Muhammad Nadeem Ahmad ND. Nadeem has already announced his retirement from international hockey on Friday citing poor form and failing to motivate the side during Olympics.

“Tahir has been sidelined for having been long associated with the team for a respite and his place has been filled with former Olympians Asif Bajwa”, said Brig (Retd) Musarrat Ullah Khan, Secretary PHF, here Saturday.

He said Bajwa who is the coach of the junior team has been given the new responsibility as there is not much activity for junior team in the remaining part of the current year.

PHF has also invited 21 players for the camp which will commence from September 19 at hockey club of Pakistan Karachi to prepare the squad for the September 24 to October 10 series between the two neighbouring countries. The series will kick off at Pakistan, Karachi and each country will host four matches.

Musarrat said after careful thought, the national selection committee has recommended that three players, Ahmad, Ali and Nadeem because of catching up with the age should be relegated as there is tough schedule of activities and competitions at hand.

“The committee also considered the inclusion of Saqlain as he has a lot of potential still at a age of 28 and he was penalised for his attitude and indiscipline and was not selected in the team for Olympics”, he said.

He said President, PHF, General Muhammad Aziz Khan has approved re-calling of Saqlain.

Following have been invited for the camp: (PTCL) Salman Akbar, Ghazanfar Ali, Shakeel Abbasi, Adnan Zakir, Tariq Aziz and Akhtar Ali. (NBP) Zeeshan Ashraf, Adnan Maqsood, Imran Warsi, Abdul Aasim Khan. (HBL) Kashif Jawad, Imran Khan (Wapda) Rehan Butt, Mudassar Ali Khan, Shabbir Hussain, Waseem Ahmad, Sohail Abbas. (ABL) Muhammad Saqlain (Army) Dilawar Hussain, Muhammad Imran (Sindh) Nasir Ahmad.

“Players have been directed to carry out their regular training practice and also keep themselves in proper physical trim, on the opening day of the camp, they will be given “physical test “.

Musarrat said Sami Ullah Khan has been appointed touring manager. Roelant Oltmans will be the head coach, Roberto Tolentino video analyst, Faiz ur Reman, physiotherapist and Lt Col Yousaf Baig team doctor.

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Any chance of seeing the matches on GS?

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geo is broadcasting it live in usa

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Urdu commentators really suck. The 'expert guy' is on drugs I think.

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Just heard Pakistan by 2-1

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Well played Pakistan :k: I saw the second half, Indians are clearly struggling and Pakistan could have won with a better margin but for poor finishing.

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Pakistan make winning start : beat India 2-1
Pakistan

September 24, 2004
Syed Akber Ali Wahidi
By : Syed Akber Ali Wahidi

Karachi : Pakistan’s most-capped midfielder Wasim Ahmed became the 34th skipper in the history of Pakistan hockey when his team defeated India 2-1 in the first test of 9th Indo-Pak Hockey Series at picturesque Hockey Club of Pakistan (HCP) Stadium, Karachi. It is first time that Karachi gets the privilege of staging the opener of Indo-Pak series which incepted in 1978 with Mumbai Test at S. K. Wankhede Cricket Stadium. Nur Khan and Dr. MAM Ramaswamy, President of PHF and IHF respectively, did great work in introducing the Test Series between the two nations who captured eleven Olympics gold in between them.

Mumbai also staged the opener of 1981 series while Kolkata (1986), New Delhi
(1988,1999) and Peshawar (1998) staged the first test of the other bilateral series between the arch-rivals. The 1982 and 1984 series were held at Southwestern part of Asia viz Gulf States.

Dilip Tirkey-led India landed the opener in the 3rd minute when striker Arjun Halappa smashed the ball in following a rebound from keeper Salman Akbar – Pakistan’s only custodian in 18-member line-up given by manager Samiullah Khan and coach Roelant Oltmans to technical Committee – after Indian’s first Penalty Corner (PC).

Pakistan’s first PC, in the 17th minute, also provided a goal when Sohail Abbas’s powerful drag flick left keeper Adrian D’Souza stranded. It was Sohail’s 262nd goal in international hockey and he is now six goals away from Paul Litjens’s world-record figure of 267 goals.

Striker Rehan Butt put Pakistan 2-1 ahead in the 26th minute when he pounced on rebound after his earlier attempt was parried away by Adrian. Pakistan got four more PCs in the first half but Adrian foiled Sohail’s attempts with timely rushes on top of the D. Pakistan led 2-1 at interval .The second half remain goalless as the chances were far and few.

Pakistan fielded two youngsters Adnan Zakir and Imran Warsi, who represented Pakistan U21 team at 5th Asian Junior Cup at the same venue five months ago, making them 299th and 300th international players respectively for Pakistan.

It was 165th international match at HCP. Completed in 1966, the HCP is among the biggest and most prestigious hockey centers in the world. Having an approximate seating capacity of 30,000, HCP has the honor of staging the Champions Trophy, FIH 's prestigious annual event featuring the world's six top-ranked teams, for record six times. Karachi was picked as host for the first time in 1980 when first-ever Astro-turf of Asia was laid at HCP in December 1979. Later on, the same venue staged the editions of 1981, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1992.

The HCP was the brainchild of Gen. Muhammad Musa after the Rome Olympics triumph. He had the farsightedness of having the facility of international standard and acquired the land owned by the Cantonment Board. HCP is located at Saddar Town – one of the 18 towns of Karachi – and Musa was guest of honor during the foundation-laying ceremony on 19 Dec 1963.Musa also inaugurated the HCP at Liaquat Barrack on 14 February 1966 when Karachi Combined inflicted 1-0 win over Pakistan Rest through Asad Malik’s solitary goal in an exhibition match.

The first-ever international match on HCP took place on 4 October 1966 when Australia did well to hold Pakistan 0-0. The first international scorers at HCP were Tariq Niazi and Laeeq Ahmed when they scored in 2-0 win over Netherlands on 7 February 1967.

HCP so far hosted 165 internationals, producing 807 goals. Pakistan is having 74% success rate at HCP having won 49 of the 75 internationals while
13 matches ended in draw. Pakistan managed 267, conceding 96 goals at this venue.
Karachi, in all, hosted 171 international matches, and six of the 171 fixtures were organized at KGA Ground, National Stadium, Pakistan Steel Sports Complex and UBL Sports Complex.
The umpires for the first test were Amarjit Singh (Malaysia) and Rashid Butt (Pakistan).
NEXT TEST : 27 Sep 2004 (Gen.Musa Stadium, Quetta)

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:salam:

PAK are playing today. plz post the final score.

jazaqallah

:jhanda:

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India beat Pakistan 4/1 in the second match. The series is now tied at 1 match each.

For India Sandeep Singh (13th and 17th minutes), Ignace Tirkey and Khandekar scored.

Pakistan wasted four penalty corners before scoring from the fifth in the 69th minute through Sohail Abbas for their consolation goal.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by ehsan: *
India beat Pakistan 4/1 in the second match. The series is now tied at 1 match each.

For India Sandeep Singh (13th and 17th minutes), Ignace Tirkey and Khandekar scored.

Pakistan wasted four penalty corners before scoring from the fifth in the 69th minute through Sohail Abbas for their consolation goal.
[/QUOTE]

oh :(

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Great performance so far by the youthful Indian side.

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[thumb=H]20078_8086666.JPG[/thumb]
Hockey fans waving Indian flags during the second Pakistan-India match at Quetta(AFP/Aamir Qureshi)
India spurred on by surprise support from hockey fans in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - India hope that surprising crowd support from hockey fans in Pakistan will spur them on to take the lead in the third match of their eight-game series, now tied at 1-1.
"The crowd support was hugely surprising for us and we felt like the match was played in Jullunder and not in Quetta," a bemused Indian captain Dilip Tirkey told AFP on Tuesday.
More than 5,000 people cheered India when they outplayed hosts Pakistan 4-1 in the second match at Quetta on Tuesday to level the series. Pakistan won the first match in Karachi by 2-1 last week.
Each country will host four matches, with the third game in Peshawar on Wednesday.
Quetta, hosting its first international sporting event since a one-day match between Pakistan and India in 1996, had more Indian flags than Pakistani ones. Once India scored three goals the crowd started backing the tourists.
Tirkey said the crowd support "made us feel at home, we hope it would remain the same in the last two matches".
India went ahead through two excellent and well disguised penalty corner goals by the 19-year-old Sandeep Singh while Ignace Tirkey and Tushar Khandekar scored once in each half.
Pakistan's consolation goal came from midfielder Ghazanfar Ali off Pakistan's fifth short corner after their penalty corner expert Sohail Abbas failed in previous attempts.
"It was in our plan not to allow Pakistan more penalty corners and we did not panic in our circle like we did in the first match," said Tirkey.
Pakistan have won six matches against India this year and they finished fifth compared to India's seventh in the Athens Olympics. But captain Waseem Ahmed said his side has yet to get going.
"We have yet to fire in the series and now it's up to the boys to pull their socks up because it would be nice to go to India with a lead rather than lagging behind," he said.
Security in the north-western border city of Peshawar has been further strengthened for the match. A military operation against suspected foreign militants is underway in tribal areas near the Afghan border.
The last match of the Pakistan leg is in Lahore on October 1 and the Indian matches will be played between October 4-10.
This is India's first hockey tour of Pakistan since 1999 after relations eased between the two countries.

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Pakistan have beaten india by 3-2 in third match and go 2-1 up in the series. woo hoo :hula:

Lead 2-0 at the halftime. Indians did really well to bounce back and equalized by scoring two goals but Sohail Abbas as usual scored the winner

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PAKISTAN ZINDABAD

:jhanda:

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The fourth match finished 4/4.

Paksitan leads the series 2/1.

The next four matches are in India.

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The last match was just soo interesting. Well played to both teams. Looking forward to next four matches. :jhanda:

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Pakistan beat India 3/1 in Delhi to take a 3/1 lead with 3 matches to play.

Go Pak. :jhanda:

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And Sohail Abbas needs one more goal to break the record.
:clap: