Hockey team up against Pakistan

The Bangladesh hockey team will take on eight-time champions Pakistan in their last Pool B match of the Asian Games today, with the realistic target of avoiding an embarrassing defeat.

Gobinathan Krishnamurthy's charges are in third position in the group, with three wins from four matches, behind Pakistan and Malaysia and ahead of Oman, Thailand and Kazakhstan.

Mathematically, all three outcomes are still possible for Bangladesh -- they can move into the last four with a 30-odd goal victory against Pakistan, they can lose out on the fifth-sixth position match if they lose against Pakistan and Oman beat Malaysia by a big margin and they can finish third in the group to qualify for the fifth-sixth place decider despite a defeat and a defeat for Oman against Malaysia. The last outcome looks most likely given the strength of teams. The coach, too, was realistic in his assessment.

“Pakistan are a very big team. They will play all-out. So we will have to fight. Realistically they are here and we are here [indicates the gap with his hands]. But as long as we play our standard, I will be happy,” Krishnamurthy said after Sunday's victory against Thailand.

Bangladesh have never been able to beat their Pakistani counterparts, who have won all four of their matches so far, having scored 41 goals against one conceded.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, have so far lost one game, 7-0 against Malaysia, who were beaten 4-1 by Pakistan on Sunday.

It is likely to be an uneven contest, kicking off at 5:00pm today, but one where Bangladesh would want to take some positives from.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh's female sprinter Sumi Akter finished 28th among 30 competitors despite recording her best effort, clocking 2:26.59min in women's 800m at the Gelora Bung Karno stadium yesterday. Her previous best in this event was 2:31min.