The South African men’s hockey team went down┬á 6-2 by world number five Pakistan in their final Pool B match at the World League Semi-Final tournament in Johor, Malaysia on Tuesday night.
The result leaves world No12 South Africa being drawn to face Pool A winners, world No10 Argentina, in the first quarter-final match on Thursday, which will be televised live on SuperSport 5 and HD2 from 8.45am (SA time).
Apart from Argentina versus South Africa, the other quarter-finals pit Pakistan against South Korea, hosts Malaysia versus world No1 Germany and England up against Japan.
South Africa started well, piling on the pressure, but the Pakistanis took a 2-0 lead with goals from Muhammad Zubair in the 13th minute and Shafqat Rasool in the 18th minute before Wade Paton reduced the deficit from a penalty corner in the 25th minute.
Pakistan restored their two-goal advantage when Abdul Haseem Khan deflected in a penalty corner attempt by skipper Muhammad Imran in the 27th minute for the 3-1 half-time score.
Haseem was on target again in the 41st minute to extend Pakistan’s lead to 4-1 and completed his hat-trick in the 60th minute. Zubair scored the sixth Pakistan goal in the 64th minute while Craig Haley scored a minute from time, in the 69th minute, for South Africa to leave the final score 6-2 to Pakistan.