# Champions India blast Pakistan 5-1
# Argentina shock Australia 1-0
National Juniors coach A. Arulselvaraj was a very disappointed man as Malaysia succumbed to a 4-2 defeat to last year’s runners-up Great Britain in their opening match in the 5th edition of the Sultan of Johor Cup Under-21 Invitational International tournament.
And Arul had the answer for the defeat – blame it on the goalkeeper. And the man who destroyed the Malaysians was Great Britain skipper Luke Taylor who plundered a hat-trick with the first coming via a field goal in the 32nd minute.
He then made it count from two penalty corner set-pieces in the 62nd and 68th minutes for a winning start to the tournament.
“We lost because of goalkeeping errors. I personally believe our goalkeeper Ridzwan Azmi should take the blame for letting in three soft goals,” said Arul at the post match conference at the Taman Daya Hockey Stadium.
“At the same time some of the seniors who were expected to perform did not play to expectations…it is disappointing to accept such from them. We expected better hockey from the seniors in the team.
Malaysia were very much in the picture when the homesters fought back from 2-0 by the 44th minute to make it all square after 50 minutes with field goals by Azwar Rahman (48th) and Shahril Saabah (50th).
Great Britain’s second goal was scored by Robert Gleeson in the 44th minute via a field attempt.
“It is not easy to beat Malaysia and to beat them in the first match is a confidence booster for the team,” said Great Britain coach Jon Bleby.
Earlier in the battle of the arch-rivals from the Indian sub-continent, India kept their unbeaten record against Pakistan with a thumping 5-1 win – giving early signals that they are in no mood to surrender the title they won in 2013 and last year.
Both sides scored through field attempts and India opened the floodgates as early as the fifth minute through Ajay Yadav. India added three more before the halftime break for a 4-0 lead with goals by Sumit Kumar (23rd), Armaan Qureshi (27th) and Parvinder Singh (44th).
Pakistan pulled one back through skipper Muhammad Dilber on 45 minutes but India added the fifth through Santa Singh in the 60th minute for a comfortable win in the six-team round robin league which will see the top two playing in the final.
In the day’s opening match Argentina made their return in style with a 1-0 win over Australia, dubbed the “winning team” when Ladislao Gencarelli on target with a field goal in the 65th minute.
RESULTS (Oct 11)
Malaysia 2 Great Britain 4
India 5 Pakistan 1
Argentina 1 Australia 0
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