Bangladesh young boys swept into the final of the Under-18 Asia Hockey for the first time after outplaying Chinese Taipei 6-1 in the last-four classification match at the Maulana Bhashani National Hockey Stadium in Dhaka on Thursday. Bangladesh U18 boys have never reached the final of an international hockey tournament before and last time they took part in the same tournament was one and half decades ago in the first edition in 2001 where they finished fifth out of ten teams. The men in red and green will face the winner of the other semifinal match between India and Pakistan. Bangladesh earlier defeated India 5-4 in their opening game before thrashing Oman 10-0 in the second match to emerge as group champions from Pool A.Drag-flick specialist Ashraful Islam, who netted seven goals in the last two matches in the group stage, added three more to his goal tally today, all from penalty corners while while Raju Ahmmed, Sajib Hossain and Fazle Hossain Rabby added one apiece to help the home side earn a comfortable victory. With ten goals from only three matches, defender Ashraful Islam are now top scorer in the seven-nation tournament.

Source: Dhaka Tribune September 29, 2016 09:33 UTC