Mari Energies Beat China’s Guangdong 5-2 in First Test in Rawalpindi
Guangdong’s Pakistan tour has its first result on the board, and it went to the hosts.
Mari Energies beat the visiting Chinese side 5-2 in the first test at the Lieutenant General Ashfaq Nadeem Hockey Stadium in Rawalpindi on Tuesday 20 October. A proper scoreline, too, not a scrape: five goals against a provincial side that has come to Pakistan specifically to test itself against the country’s best departmental teams.
The match drew a serious guest list, which tells you how the PHF is treating this tour. Federation president Mohiuddin Ahmad Wani was there, along with Mari Energies director administration Brigadier Saleem Raza, manager aviation and sports Colonel Shahid Qayyum, and Ayub Park Sports in-charge Colonel Mohsin.
A tour that’s already swinging both ways
If Rawalpindi suggested the home sides would have it their own way, Islamabad corrected that quickly. In the second match of the series, Guangdong drew 1-1 with Pakistan Army at the Naseer Bunda Hockey Stadium, Chen Nanzhen putting the visitors ahead from a penalty stroke in the 26th minute before Army levelled from a penalty corner eight minutes later, and then won the shoot-out 4-2.
So the tour stands level in spirit if not in a formal table: one home win, one visitor win, and plenty of hockey still to come. The tour has been reshaped since it was first announced — Guangdong arrived on 19 October for a 13-day visit, and the revised run-in takes them to Pakistan Navy in Islamabad on Friday 23 October, Pakistan Customs in Lahore on Sunday 25 October, Pakistan Rangers in Narowal on 26 October, a Pakistan Under-18 side in Gojra on 28 October and Pakistan Police in Lahore on 29 October, before they fly home on 30 October.
That’s the real value of this tour, honestly. Not the results against the big departmental names, useful as those are, but Chinese provincial opposition for Pakistan’s younger players on home turf, the kind of match experience you can’t drill. The kids in Gojra should be circling that date.
Read next: Guangdong tour dates have moved — Navy on Friday, Customs on Sunday, the Army shoot-out report, and the Asian Champions Trophy opening day fixtures.
