By Azlanshahcup.comWorld champions Australia were held to a 5-5 draw at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and it makes their chances to make the final a lot more difficult now.
The Aussies had taken a 4-1 lead at one stage but Pakistan came back fighting despite being down by two goals in the last nine minutes and could have even won it in the dying seconds if not for Mohamad Zubair’s miss.
Australia was all over the Pakistan in the opening minutes but it took them 11 minutes to open their accounts via Timothy Bates.
Though Australia forced two penalty corners in the 14th and 15th minutes, Christopher Cierello failed to get the better of Pakistani custodian Imran Shah.
But some fine work by Timothy Bates opened up the Pakistani defence and the ball was relayed to Grant Schubert who put Australia 2-0 ahead in the 17th minute.
Pakistan reduced the deficit in the 21st minute when Muhamad Rizwan weaved past the Aussie keeper George Bazeley to score from an acute angle. However Australia regained their two-goal advantage when Christopher Ciriello scored off their third penalty corner in the 26th minute.
Muhamad Irfan almost reduced the deficit in the dying seconds of the match but was denied by the upright with Bazeley beaten.
Ciriello scored his second of the day in the 40th minute and Pakistan were a beaten side. Luck too was not on the Pakistani teams side as in the 45th minute Muhamad Rizwan’s attempt came off the upright.
Against the run of play, Pakistan reduced the deficit to 4-2 when Irfan and Rizwan combined well to pierce open the Australian defence in the middle with Irfan having the final touch to score in the 53rd minute.
Pakistan was awarded their first penalty corner of the match in the 58th minute and up stepped skipper Muhammad Imran to send a low flick past Bazeley to reduce the deficit to just one goal.
Then Grant Schubert struck for Australia to make it 5-3in the 61st minute but Muhamad Umar Bhutta made it 5-4 in the 64th minute. Imran scored off another penalty corner a minute from time to ensure a grandstand finish and Zubair could have won all three points in the dying seconds but it was not to be.
