Times of India: Sultan Azlan Shah Cup: India crush Malaysia 5-1
NEW DELHI: India produced a scintillating game, especially in the final quarter, to thrash Malaysia 5-1 in their fourth match of the 27th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey at Ipoh in Malaysia on Wednesday. It was India’s first victory of the tournament with a game against Ireland, on Friday, left in the league phase.
With this victory, India have managed to keep their hopes of reaching the final alive, but it will depend on favourable results from the last round robin fixtures scheduled for Friday. India are fifth in the standings with four points in as many games, while it was second defeat for the hosts and they remained at the third spot with six points.
For India to qualify for the summit clash, they will have to beat Ireland by a big margin and hope Australia beat Argentina and the match between Malaysia and England ends in a draw.
A different-looking India, from the listless one who lost 2-4 to Australia, played the hosts on Wednesday as they scored three goals in nine minutes in the final quarter to dent Malaysia’s chances to finish in the top two.
India, who have rested many senior players, had lost their opener to Argentina 2-3 before drawing 1-1 with England.
Shilanand Lakra gave India an early lead in the first quarter as he took on a pass from Gurjant Singh before pushing the ball past the Malaysian goalkeeper from a tight angle in the tenth minute.
Malaysia’s Faisal Saari came close to score the equaliser in the dying seconds of the Q2, but it went just wide as India headed into the half-time break with a slender 1-0 lead.
Saari did not have to wait for long for the equaliser as he converted the first penalty corner for Malaysia early in the second half to level the score at 1-1 in the 33rd minute.
But three minutes before the end of third quarter, Gurjant Singh scored through an easy tap-in to put India back in the front. Malaysia goalie made three good saves while facing India’s second PC in the 42nd minute but unfortunately the ball flew in front of Gurjant, who made no mistake in front of an open goal.
Malaysia’s resistance ended when Sumit Kumar extended India’s lead to 3-1 in the 48th minute. Captain Sardar Singh passed the ball to Ramandeep Singh in the left flank, who then crossed it into the middle of the circle away from the Malaysia goalkeeper for Sumit to make a simple tap in.
Soon after Sumit missed a big chance to score his second as he shot just wide from point-blanked range in front of the open goal, Ramandeep deflected the ball into the goal to make it 4-1 for India in the 54th minute.
Three minutes later, India got their fourth PC and Gurjant scored his second and India’s fifth as they beat the hosts comprehensively.