Bangladesh a win away from Hockey Junior World Cup

Bangladesh moved closer to their dream of qualifying for the FIH Hockey Junior World Cup for the first time following a 1-1 draw against China in their last pool match at the Al Amerat Hockey Stadium in Muscat on Sunday.

With two draws and a win alongside a defeat, Bangladesh finished third in Pool B with four points, behind Pakistan and Malaysia and ahead of China and Oman.

The third-position finish set Bangladesh up for a place-deciding match against Thailand, fourth-placed finishers from Pool A, on Tuesday.

A win against the inferior-ranked Thailand will take Moududur Rahman Shuvo's charges to next year's Junior World Cup, to be staged in India.

After playing a creditable 2-2 draw against Malaysia in the previous match, Bangladesh needed a draw to finish third so as to avoid South Korea in the place-deciding match. However, the men in red and green could not put on a spirited display like the previous match, instead their game was full of erratic passing, loose ball control and lack of organisation in attacks.

Goalkeeper Mohammad Noyon, though, stood tall and made a string of saves to deny a spirited China and kept Bangladesh in the match until the umpires cancelled out a last-minute strike from China.

Bangladesh took the lead against the run of play with Mohammad Ali finding the back of China net with a reverse hit in the 41st minute following an attack from the right flank. China, however, came back strongly after converting one of four successive penalty corners in the 45th minute to level the score.

China kept pressing in the final quarter but were denied time and again by keeper Noyon before defender Amirul Islam wasted a penalty stroke in the 54th minute to make things harder for Bangladesh.

With only 30 seconds left to the final whistle, Bangladesh launched an attack with a scoop shot, only to be caught in possession and China earned their ninth penalty corner from the resulting counterattack with only 4.5 seconds left of the game.

China converted the penalty corner and the umpire signalled for a goal before changing his decision, allowing Bangladesh to have a massive sigh of relief.