The Hindu : Sport : Missed chances cost India dear, Malaysia enters final

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Saturday, May 12, 2007
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Sport

Missed chances cost India dear, Malaysia enters final

S. Thyagarajan

Malaysian team celebrates after beating India 2-1 in their semi-final match. Malaysia will play in final match against Australia on Sunday. PHOTO: AP.

Ipoh: What a memorable match it turned out to be for Malaysia. The 2-1 victory over India in the semifinal of the Azlan Shah hockey tournament on Friday gave the home team a berth in the final after a hiatus of 22 years.

Malaysia will take on the former champion, Australia, in Sunday's final, while India defends the bronze against Korea.

Commendable as the show of the Malaysians was before a full house, the fact that India failed to translate its territorial advantage in any meaningful way must be recorded. Quite a few openings were created thanks to quick sallies of the frontline but everything became a mess at the all-important end.

Shivendra Singh scored a brilliant goal to level the score from a neat centre by Saradara Singh within a few minutes after Malaysia hoisted the lead through Tajuddin.

Missed chances

But thereafter it was an agony of missed chances. Shivendra had more than one chance to carve out a lead.

First, he fumbled a cross from Gurbaj Singh who had worked his way from the mid-field. He flunked again, another perfect pass from Gurbaj Singh. India had two penalty corners in the first half, but unfortunately the drag-flicker Raghunath was not on the field. Neither of the penalty corners was utilised well.

There was a marked fluency in the frontline sallies. Sardara Singh contributed immensely to keep the attack in a vibrant mode. Rajpal Singh and Prabhjot Singh functioned well on the wings as did Roshan Minz and Bharath Chikkara. Even the mid-field was tight with Bimal Lakra and Gurbaj Singh serving a few excellent forward passes.

But the deep defence was a disappointment. More than once Harpal proved inadequate and error prone. The tentative defence allowed a lot of leeway for the Malaysian forwards for whom Selvaraj on the flank was menacing.

It was one of his powerful centres that put Malaysia in the lead.

Match winner

Even after resumption, India had the better of the exchanges till Kelvinder Singh gave Malaysia the lead, which eventually proved the match-winner.

Carvalho endeavoured to put every card in his chart plans into action; shuffled the lines even to the point of allowing drag-flicker Raghunath hover around the rival circle in the hope of obtaining a penalty corner.

The pressure exerted was evident throughout but the Malaysians defended their goal gallantly, not conceding even a single penalty corner in the second half. The home team's goalkeeper Kumar Subramaniam also brought off some excellent saves. Friday's result avenged for Malaysia the 4-0 reverse against India at the Doha Asiad.

Spirited start

Australia's waltz into the final consequent to the surprising capitulation of the Koreans, after a spirited start could be put down to an umpiring aberration by Malaysia's Paramjit. Fighting a 1-2 deficit, the Koreans were very much in the match after cornering the equaliser by Jeong Yun Sung.

A free-hit close on half-time by Kim Chul flashed through a maze of sticks. When Yoon Sung Hoon jumped for joy after seeing the ball crashing against the boards and this indicated that the Koreans equalised again. But Paramjit signalled a corner, triggering a heated debate. If the umpire had contended the ball did not touch the stick, then the TV replays did not support it.

The Koreans were palpably depressed by the verdict and that showed in the way they caved in for a tennis-like score 2-6.

That one discordant note must not diminish in any away the merit of Australia's deserving win. The team played to a programme, and scored with effortless ease. The two goals that Desmond Abbot slotted were probably the best of the match. He netted early on from a finely conceived move that involved Bevan George and Liem de Young. And he scored the last goal too with a brilliant drive from the top of the circle off a cross from Matt Naylor.

The results: Semifinals: Australia 6 (Desmond Abbot 2, Andrew Smith, Lien de Young, Eli Matheson, Grant Schibert) bt Korea 2 (Jeong Yun Sung, Lee Sung Min) HT 2-1.

Malaysia 2 (Tajuddin, Kelvinder Singh) bt India 1 (Shivendra Singh) HT 1-1.

Saturday's matches: (7-8): Canada v China; (5-05 a.m); (5-6): Pakistan v Argentina (7-05 a.m.)

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