Press Trust of India
Guwahati, Feb 8: A lacklustre India suffered a 1-2 defeat at the hands of arch rivals Pakistan in their much-anticipated group match of men’s hockey event at the 12th South Asian Games here Monday.
Muhammad Arslan Qadir scored both the goals for Pakistan in the 11th and 37th minutes while Indian captain Mandeep Antil pulled one back in the 55th minute of the match at the Moullana Tyabulla Stadium here.
The much-awaited match of the Games played between second string sides of the two countries did not rise to any heights as there were few very goal-scoring chances.
There was not much spark either on the field as both sides lacked creativity for most of the time. This was the first time both sides were playing against each other after the controversy in the 2014 Champions League match in Bhubaneswar.
Earlier in the day, the Indian eves thrashed Sri Lanka 12-1 to notch up their second successive win on the trot. Jaspreet Kaur got five goals while the other goals were scored by Rani (fourth minute), Sonika (13th), Soundarya Yendala (14th and 27th), Jyoti Gupta (19th), Deepika (52nd) and Gurji Kaur (59th). The only goal for Sri Lanka was scored by PACD Premasiri.
