Showing excellent resilience, India trumped hosts Malaysia by 4-2 in an exciting Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2019 match Ipoh on Tuesday. India’s previous match against Korea had ended in a 1-1 draw.
The resultant of the incredible win was that the Men in Blue jumped to the second position of the six-team competition.
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The Game
At the beginning of the match, Indian reserve keeper Krishan B. Pathak made a fine save in the first quarter to crush the first penalty corner for Malaysia. Players like Sumit and Simranjeet Singh missed out some goals due to lack of ball control between their circle.
But they could not open the scoring for India. Later in the 17th minute, India got a lead when Sumit managed to play a free hut from outside the circle. Now India was leading Malaysia.
FT: ?? 2-4 ??
— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) March 26, 2019
India beat Malaysia 4-2 in their third match of the tournament to continue to remain a contender for the ? spot! #IndiaKaGame #SultanAzlanShahCup2019 pic.twitter.com/qczj7qJ55S
The game, however, bent towards the Malaysian team in the 21st minute when drag-flicker Razie Rahim scored to restore parallelism. But India was not ready for any draws this time.
In the 27th minute, Sumit Kumar’s field goal gave India the lead by 2-1. Varun Kumar took the score to 3-1 after India won three successive penalty corners in the third quarter.
On the other hand, Malaysia also won three consecutive corners in the ending minutes of the third quarter but could not score due to poor coordination and few mis-hits. Malaysia got one score up in the 57th minute when Tengku Tajuddin hit a field goal.
Malaysia did not even equalize the score when India’s Mandeep Singh gave placed one more point on India’s plate to end the match 4-2. India’s total points are seven and they are placed on the top of the points table after drawing a match with Korea and winning a match against Malaysia.
India will now play against Canada on Wednesday, 27th March.
