Malaysia's Shahril Saabah was sent tumbling by India's Varun Kumar in the Sultan of Johor Cup match at Taman Daya Stadium.
JOHOR BARU: Malaysia’s hopes of a final berth in the Sultan of Johor Cup went up in smoke when they lost 1-2 to India at the Taman Daya Hockey Stadium.
With the win, India are now through to the fourth straight final. They were runners-up to Germany in 2012 and champions in 2013 and last year.
The win over Malaysia gave India nine points to surge to the top of the six-team Under-21 tournament. Britain dropped to second on eight points after being surprisingly held to a 4-4 draw by Australia.
Britain now face Argentina, who are third on seven points after a 3-1 win over Pakistan 3-1, for the other spot in Sunday’s final.
Malaysia went into Thursday’s match full of confidence after notching a 3-2 win over Australia on Wednesday.
But the Indians were in no charitable mood as they dominated play from the get-go. They had seven penalty corners with Hermanpreet Singh on target twice to record their third win.
Malaysia coach A. Arulselvaraj was disappointed with the loss as he felt the team could have done better.
“We had chances but we did not pressure them hard enough. They had better of the exchanges and more penalty corners. We played well at some point but generally we were not sharp enough,” he said.
Malaysia did well to repel all the Indian attack to troop off the field 0-0 at half-time.
But five minutes into the second period, India finally managed to break the deadlock. From a penalty corner, Hermanpreet flicked in a direct attempt to beat Malaysia goalkeeper Mohamed Ridzwan Azmi.
The Indians continued to dominate play and found the target again through their seventh penalty corner in the 57th minute. Hermanpreet was the scorer again.
Malaysia’s best chance came in the 63rd minute when they earned a penalty corner. But Mohamed Shahril Saabah’s attempt was saved on the line by India skipper Harjeet Singh.
But Shahril was not to be denied in the 68th minute when he fired home Malaysia’s second penalty corner. But it was all Malaysia could do as they dropped to fifth in the table on four points.
Earlier, Britain were on course for a place in the final after Jack Waller gave them a 4-3 lead in the 67th minute. But the Australians fought back to gain a point through a last-gasp penalty corner goal in the 70th minute through Andrew Scanlons.
Britain scored their earlier goals through Jack Clee (eighth) and Luke Taylor (27th and 35th minutes) while Ryan Proctor (31st), Fraser Gerrard (55) and Stephen Gale (65) netted for Australia.
In the other match, Argentina recorded their second win when they beat winless Pakistan 3-1.
Argentina skipper Maico Casella was the hero, scoring a hat-trick in the 22nd, 27th and 37th minute. Pakistan’s consolation came through Muhammad Qasim in the 68th minute.
“I’m very happy and proud of the team,” said Argentina coach Mariano Ronconi.
“But it’s not the win that makes me happy, it’s the team’s performance. They really did well today and surpassed all expectations,” he added.
Pakistan team manager Brig Khalid Farani was disappointed to lose their third match in the tournament.
“The team were a bit disjointed today compared to previous matches. We also missed some good opportunities. Argentina managed to convert all their penalty corners and it affected the morale of our team,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment