Pakistanis Gatecrash Indian Hockey Party

The beginning has been made. Thereafter, the Marathas went on scoring spree, with its Pakistani warriors taking centrestage. And thus the focus of the shifted from Dhanraj to the strikers form across the border as the Mumbai team won 5-2. Ali Raza scored added one more goal through a penalty corner — also created by Dhanraj — and Kashif Jawwad scored the remaining three to complete the tally. In the first quarter, the Mumbai team was all over the place. But on-field, it was Pakistan all along. Mohammad Saqlain kept the pressure on with Dhanraj, while Jawwad gave perfect finishing touches to some brilliantly executed moves by Dhanraj. And Raza, keeping Sohail Abbas’s rating of being the most promising penalty corner experts in the world intact, went about his task methodically.