India were stunned 0-1 by a resilient Malaysia on Friday, thereby ending their hopes of playing the final against Australia in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup. Shahril Saabah scored the only goal through a fine penalty corner late in the game.
Both teams played out a scrappy first half with neither side particularly stretching the opposition defence with their circle entries. Malaysia, though, showed much more energy on the ball. Faizal Saari in particular was causing India problems with his runs on the left wing.
For India, Rupinder Pal Singh, who is usually reliable with his drag-flicks, failed to capitalise on three penalty corner opportunities.
India’s presence grew in the game in the second quarter. Talwinder’s unleashed a shot with his back facing the goal but veteran Malaysia goalie Kumar Subramanium parried the shot with his left hand. India’s midfield general Sardar Singh looked off-colour and allowed the Malaysian forwards to run at the heart of the Indian defence at will.
Malaysia adopted a more conservative approach in the third quarter, but India continued to be bereft of ideas inside the circle. Mandeep Singh and Akashdeep Singh remained a peripheral presence for much of the game.
Roelant Oltamans’ side removed goalkeeper Akash Chikte for the final quarter, but were dealt with a massive blow with skipper Manpreet Singh receiving a green card. Malaysia cashed in on their numerical advantage with steady flow of attacks, and Sabbah made no mistake with ten minutes left on the clock.
India threw men forward but continued to struggle to penetrate through the Malaysian defence, which remained staunch at the back. They continued to squander penalty corner opportunities with Harmanpreet Singh tame effort late in the game only hitting the defensive wall – it also resulted in India losing their referral.
With less than 150 seconds left in the game, Sardar Singh missed a glorious chance to level the score from a what was a cleverly-worked penalty corner. That closed all doors on a dream late comeback, like the one against Japan in the previous game.
India will now face New Zealand for the third place match. Great Britain, who had beaten the Black Sticks earlier in the game, progress to their first final in the competition in 23 years where they face Australia.
Brief score:
- Malaysia 1 [Shahril Saabah (pc)] beat India 0
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