Five-time champion weathered a strong challenge from the home side to secure a narrow victory in a nail-biting match at the Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Stadium
Malaysia suffered their first defeat at the hands of five-time champion India at the 31st edition of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup Invitational Hockey Tournament at the Azlan Shah Hockey Stadium today.
India shrugged off a strong challenge from the home team to register their 3-2 victory in a nail-biting game. Before the match began, Perak Hockey Association President Datuk Sayuti Samad and the Speedy Tigers congratulated Faiz Helmi Jalil, who earned his 250th cap in the game against India.
The visitors took the lead as early as the seventh minute when Karthi Selvam scored in a goalmouth melee, hitting a pass past keeper Hafizuddin Othman. Faizal Saari equalised six minutes later from a penalty corner. India went into the lead again in the 21st minute when Sukhjeet Singh scored from a field goal, a lead they held going into the interval.
After the break, Malaysia mounted pressure on their opponents and got the equaliser through Fitri Saari in the 36th minute. However, India came back three minutes later after Amit Rohidas netted the goal to put the score at 4-3. In the 45th minute, captain Marhan Jalil silenced the Indian camp, slamming the ball into the net to draw level. Skipper Sanjay ensured a win for India when he converted a penalty stroke seven minutes from fulltime.
Coach Sarjit Singh said: “We played enough in our effort to win, but I think we need to minimise our mistakes again. Their goal came from a weird situation… the ball was going out, hit the umpire, and the ball came in, and they scored. We are not getting the good decisions; hopefully, we will get better. The team need to strengthen the defence… the forwards and midfield played well,” he added.
India coach Craig Fulton said, “It was quite a good first half, and I thought we created some good chances that we should have and could have finished, but didn’t. The cards really hurt us… We had a yellow, we had two greens, maybe another green. I thought two or three of the cards were so harsh from what was going on. But I am glad to have the results and base it on good defence,” he added.
