Sri Lankan stickers lose to China - 2/5

Sanjaya ARIYARATNE

Sri Lanka failed to impress on day four in their third match as they went down to China by a margin of five goals to two in the ongoing second Men’s Junior Asian Hockey Federation Cup Tournament played at Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex, Muscat in Oman.

The winners were ahead with three goals to one at half time. Sri Lanka scored their first goal through Mohammed Mulafer just one minute before the short whistle. Upul Danushka Fernando was the other scorer for Sri Lanka where he scored a goal in the 66th minute.

This is the second defeat Sri Lanka had to face in this tournament as they lost four goals to two to the defending champions Chinese Taipei in the very first match but in the second fixture lankans put up a fine performance to beat host country Oman by a narrow margin of two goals to one after a scoreless first half.

The first goal of the match was scored by Oman but fine stick work by Raj Mohan made the score one all. The winning goal for Sri Lanka was scored by Milan Ariyawansa.

China top table with nine points while hosts Oman has collected six points from three outings same as defending champions Chinese Taipei.

Sri Lanka will meet Thailand in the next match while Singapore will take on Chinese Taipei and Oman will battle it out against China who has won all the matches they played in a row so far.