13 Dec 2009

Black Sticks men through to final

6:02 pm on 13 December 2009

The New Zealand men's hockey team will go into Monday morning's Champions Challenge final against Pakistan boosted with high hopes of another win over the subcontinent side.

They beat them back in April in Malaysia and Sunday's 3-2 win over hosts Argentina in the semi-final has the coach Shane McLeod feeling confident.

The Black Sticks led after two minutes through an Andrew Hayward penalty corner, with the other goals coming from Phil Burrows and Shea McAleese.

McLeod says it was one of their best performances for a while, especially as the squad was a little younger than they would usually have in a pressure game.

The Black Sticks will play Pakistan, who beat India 6-3, in the final.