Five-time champions India shrugged off a strong challenge from Malaysia to register a 4-3 victory in a nail-biting Sultan Azlan Shah Cup encounter in Ipoh this evening.
Before the start of the match, Perak Hockey Association President Dato Sayuti Abdul Samad and the Speedy Tigers congratulated teammate Faiz Helmi Jali for earning his 250th cap in the match against India.
On the blue pitch, India took an early lead seven minutes into the game. Karthi Selvam stroked the ball past goalkeeper Hafizuddin Othman following a goal-mouth melee confusion.
The Malaysians, however, regained control of the game after the early setback under the threat of looming dark clouds and the possibility of another day of rains.
Faizal Saari’s decision to return to the national team from early retirement nine months ago, was a blessing indeed. The 34-year-old, who has more than 300 caps, restored parity by converting a penalty corner in the 13th minute after failing to pack the ball into the net in the first penalty corner opportunity minutes earlier.
The Indians, represented by their A-team, however, doubled the effort and mounted pressure on the Speedy Tigers. They were rewarded with a second field goal through Sukhjeet Singh in the 21st minute to take a 2-1 lead going into the interval.
Backed by more that 1,500 fans, the Malaysians came out firing in all cylinders in the third quarter and earned the breakthrough when Fitri Saari sneaked the ball into goal past the helpless goalkeeper Pawan in the 36th minute as the host equalised 2-2. But the Indians came back on track as fast as the stumbled. Amit Rohidas converted a penalty corner in the 39th minute to give Craig Fulton’s side a 3-2 lead.
But the joy in the Indian camp soon went silenced seconds before the end of the third quarter when Malaysian team captain Marhan Jalil slammed the ball into the net following a brilliant cross from Norsyafiq Sumantri to close the gap at 3-3. But once again India held the advantage and team captain Sanjay converted a penalty stroke.
With the time ticking away, there was only a glimmer of hope for the Speedy Tigers to force a draw. Coach Sarjit Singh called for power play with four minutes remaining to the end regulation time. The brave decision saw the Speedy Tigers swarming the Indian goalmouth but were held back from scoring the equalizer.
MALAYSIA: Sarjit Singh (Coach)
We played well enough in our effort to win the match, but I think we need to minimise our mistakes again. You see, their goal came from a weird situation. The ball was going out, hit the umpire, and ball came in and they scored. So, I think this year has not been that good. We are not getting the good decisions, but hopefully we will get better.
We need to strengthen our defence. I think the forwards played well, the midfield played well. Even though we were chasing the game, but we had enough chances to win the game. We had to adopt power play in the last four minutes. We have nothing to lose because the score is already 4-3 down, and we controlled the whole four minutes.
INDIA: Craig Fulton (Coach)
It was quite a good first half from us. And I thought we created some really good chances that we should have and could have finished but didn’t. But at least that’s positive from yesterday to today.
There was a big difference on the ball. I thought we focused well on that, did that better. And then the cards really hurt us. We had a yellow, we had two greens, maybe another green.
I thought two or three of those cards were so harsh from what was going on. And it wasn’t being distributed fairly. That was my opinion. And at the same time, they tested everything, playing a man down, especially in the last six, seven minutes. And then they took their keeper off and we were back to 11, which helped. But they still had big chances in that period.
But I’m glad we got the results and based it on good defence.
