Bangladesh were thrashed 0-8 by Pakistan in the fifth place deciding match of the Asia Cup Hockey in Jakarta, Indonesia on Wednesday.
Pakistan, ranked 18th in the world, was the favourite to win the match. Bangladesh, ranked 27th, couldn’t put forth any real fight against the Asian rivals and had to settle for the sixth spot.
For Pakistan, Mubashir Ali scored a brace while Rizwan Ali, Afraz, Abdul Shahid, Umar Bhutta, Ajaz Ahmed and Ghazanfar Ali found the back of the net one time each.
Bangladesh conceded one goal in each of the first two quarters. But things turned dire for Bangladesh from there, as they conceded six goals in the remaining two quarters.
Rizwan opened the scoring for Pakistan in the 11th minute from a penalty corner. Mubashir then scored twice in the 16th and 32nd minute. Afraz made it 4-0 in the 39th minute. Three minutes later, Shahid made it 5-0.
Pakistan captain Umar scored in the 48th minute. Ajaz joined the party for Pakistan in the 53rd minute and Ghazanfar hit the final nail in Bangladesh’s coffin in the last minute of the game.
This is Bangladesh’s fifth straight defeat to Pakistan in hockey. Recently, Bangladesh hockey team has made progress in the rankings with wins over equal strength teams. But they are struggling to compete against higher ranked sides.
Bangladesh had earlier suffered 1-6 and 1-8 defeats against South Korea and Malaysia respectively.