Ashraful leads Macau rout

Penalty-corner specialist Ashraful Islam slammed five goals including a hattrick as Bangladesh notched a massive 13-0 win over minnows Macau to finish top of Pool A in the Men's 5th AHF Cup at King's Park hockey ground in Hong Kong yesterday.

Having won all three of their pool matches, defending champions Bangladesh will meet Pool B runners-up – to be decided between Sri Lanka and Singapore – in Saturday's semifinal.

While there was hardly any doubt regarding Bangladesh's win, it was a question of how many goals Bangladesh would post against winless Macau, who had come into the third match conceding 7 goals.

Ashraful, recently elevated to the national team following his brilliant show with the under-18s, began the goal fest by converting a penalty corner in the second minute and completed his first international hattrick converting another penalty corner on the 10th and a penalty stroke on the 11th minute. Then Roman Sarker, Sarwar Hossain and Hasan Jubair Niloy joined scored one goal apiece as Bangladesh took a 6-0 lead going into the break.

The men in red and green resumed the second half from where they had left off in the first half as Ashraful added two more goals from penalty corners in the 40th and 58th minutes respectively before Sarwar struck a brace in between Roman's second goal to take the tally to 11-0 by the 63rd minute.

Moinul Islam Koushik made it 12-0 in the 69th minute before Khorshedur Rahman wrapped up the victory in the final minute of the game.

“It is really a good feeling to have struck five goals including a hattrick as I am playing with the senior players for the first time and availed the opportunities that came my way,” Ashraful said after the match. “I have gained a lot of confidence playing in the U-18 Asia Cup where I was the top-scorer. Besides, the recent practice matches in Europe helped a lot.”