Bangladesh boys suffer semifinal defeat

Despite leading till the 50th minute, Bangladesh suffered a 6-4 defeat to Japan in the first semifinal of Men's U-18 Asia Cup hockey in China on Friday.

Yuma Fujiwara slotted a hattrick to help Japan stage a fightback against Bangladesh, who had led the match by 4-3 goals till the 50th minute.

The boys in red and green got off to a strong start against their superior opponents by taking a second-minute lead when Din Islam converted a penalty corner before Ismail Hossain doubled the lead from open play in the 12th minute.

Japan, however, bounced back in the second quarter to level the margin through strikes from Fujiwara and Hiroki Toda in the 18th and 28th minutes respectively.

Bangladesh restored their lead through Mohammad Abdullah from open play on the stroke of the half-time but it was again Fujiwara, who levelled the margin with a field goal in the first minute of the fourth quarter.

Moududur Rahman Shuvo's charges reacted quickly to restore the lead three minutes later but Japan quickly converted two successive penalty corners within a span of six minutes to make it 5-4 before Fujiwara completed his hattrick from open play in the 60th minute of the game.

Bangladesh will play the third-place deciding match against Malaysia, who lost the second semifinal against Pakistan 4-3 in a tiebreaker.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh women's team were held to a 2-2 draw by Kazakhstan in a Super 4 match later in the day. The two teams will meet again tomorrow in the third-place deciding match.