Commonwealth Games Hockey Archives

England stun Australia to win their maiden CWG Gold in Women’s Hockey

BIRMINGHAM: England women’s hockey team produced a stunning outcome in their gold medal bout with the favourites Australia and claimed their first-ever gold in the Commonwealth Games.

England, who had faced Australia thrice in the Commonwealth Games final since 1998 and have lost all three of them, flipped the history as the home side handed a scintillating 2-1 defeat to the hot favourites Australia.

The English side had won a medal at every Commonwealth Games since hockey was added to the programme in 1998 – but never gold. On Sunday, however, the home side finally gets their hands on their maiden gold in the Games.

In a predictably tensed and edgy encounter between the two sides, despite a late Hockeyroos consolidation, goals from Holly Hunter and Tess Howard were sufficient to give England their first gold medal.

The women’s hockey team from India, on the other hand, thrashed New Zealand 2-1 in the penalty shootouts before the game ended evenly for both teams at 1-1.

READ: Shajar sets national record, finishes fourth in 100m sprint in Islamic Games

Australia thump Pakistan 7-0 to cease hockey team’s CWG journey

BIRMINGHAM: Australia outpowered Pakistan in a one-sided show to force the national hockey team out of the Commonwealth Games 2022, here on Thursday.

Australia completely dominated the Green Shirts in the last encounter of pool A, raining goals on them to dash any hopes left of Pakistan’s qualification for the next round of the Games’ hockey event.

Pakistan, on the other hand, remained completely clueless in the face of Australia’s powerful attack and were unable to find the nets even once throughout the game.

Blake Govers scored the opening goal in the 12th minute to give Australia a 1-0 lead whereas, Jeremy Hayward scored another goal in the 19th minute to double the lead before halftime.

Hayward added another in the third quarter with a low-drag flick while Tom Wickham found the nets for the first time in the 42nd minute to take the game out of Pakistan’s reach before the final quarter.

Wickham then scored his second just two minutes into the fourth quarter before Jacob Anderson and Nathan Ephraums completed the rout.

With the thumping 7-0 win, Australia sits at top of pool A and will now face England in the semifinals on August 6.

Meanwhile, Pakistan will now compete against Canada for the seventh position on the same day.

READ: Medvedev makes triumphant return in Mexico with landmark 250th win

Rooman stuns Scotland as Pakistan secure first win in CWG Hockey

BIRMINGHAM: National Hockey team achieved their first win in the Commonwealth Games journey as they defeated Scotland 3-2 in the Pool A match of the men’s hockey event, creating a ray of hope to qualify for the semifinals.

Rooman netted the ball just six minutes before the final whistle to steer the green shirts to victory, before Afraz Hussain and Abdul Shahid contributed with a goal each.

Scotland dominated the first quarter of the game as they earned their first penalty in the 10th minute. Robert Field was quick to react to play the ball across the area after Jamie Golden’s shot was saved, and Cammy Golden volleyed the ball into the nets to score the opening goal.

The Scots well-coordinated defence effectively neutralized Pakistan’s strong response in the remainder of the quarter.

However, in the second quarter, Pakistan attacked with more vigorous efforts and levelled the lead after 22 minutes when Afraz beat Tommy Alexander with an unstoppable shot on the turn and the goalkeeper was helpless to stop it.

Within a minute Shahid netted the ball to make it 2-1 and put his side in lead at half-time.

Struan Walker scored the equaliser in the 38th minute after both teams exchanged a flurry of attack and defence moves in the thrilling second half.

Scotland started the final quarter with a new zeal and showed fabulous attack skills however Pakistan blocked their efforts to keep the score 2-2.

However, Rooman retaliated in the 55th minute when he received a pass into the D and his shot went off the crossbar and over the goal line to make it 3-2.

With the win, Pakistan are now ranked fourth with four points in pool A with South Africa sitting in second and New Zealand in third with the same number of points.

Pakistan will now take on pool leader Australia in their final game on August 4.

READ: Nooh Butt sets record to win first Gold for Pakistan in CWG 2022

‘Players weren’t fully recovered from SA match’ Pakistan hockey coach

BIRMINGHAM: Pakistan’s hockey team head coach Siegfried Aikman put the blame for the team’s defeat against New Zealand in the Commonwealth Games on the lack of time to fully recover from the previous game.

Aikman claimed that the team’s attacking strategy against New Zealand backfired as the players did not get ample time to recover from the match against South Africa just a day earlier.

“Our aim was to play very attacking. We saw opportunities after analyzing New Zealand and our match. In our wish to attack we neglected that we played the day before and that we might not have fully recovered.” wrote Aikman in a thread posted on his Twitter account.

Our aim was to play very attacking. We saw opportunities after analyzing New Zealand and our match.
In our wish to attack we neglected that we played the day before and that we might not have fully recovered.

— siegfried Aikman (@SiggyAikman) August 1, 2022

The national hockey team has so far remained unimpressive in their Commonwealth campaign as they lost 1-4 against New Zealand following a 2-2 draw against South Africa in their first encounter.

Head coach Aikman further stated that the team lagged in their attack and made too many unforced errors in passing while claiming that it was necessary for the team to be physically stronger in order to play an attacking game against physical fit teams.

“We were unable to score and just before the end they scored the last goal. Conclusion we played an attacking match when possible but to do so against physical fit teams we need to be physically stronger,” he said.

“Players were not fully recovered from the SA match and made to many unforced errors in passing and receiving we also had problems with tactical decision making. We have 2 days to recover and to prepare for the Scotland match.” he added.

Aikman expressed hope that the team would perform well in their next game against Scotland on August 3 and demonstrate what they had learnt so far from the previous matches.

READ: Shamsi’s five-wicket haul helps Proteas to win T20I series against England