The Hindu : Sport : Malaysia records a significant victory over Japan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 05, 2007
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Sport

Sport

Malaysia records a significant victory over Japan

S. Thyagarajan

India scores a lacklustre win over Bangladesh

— Photo: M. Vedhan

FIRST STRIKE: India’s Raghunath scores the first goal against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup hockey tournament.

Chennai: With a performance that reflected a good measure of assurance, adeptness and athleticism, Malaysia gained a significant 2-0 victory over Japan and enhanced its chances of making the semifinals from Pool ‘A’ in the BSNL-Asia Cup hockey championship on Tuesday.

Malaysia’s total at the moment is nine points from three matches with a goal aggregate of 23. It takes on another contender for the last four, Pakistan, on Wednesday.

Earlier, India scored a lacklustre 6-0 win over Bangladesh.

What spurred the Malaysians to steel them to face the consistent onslaught of the Japanese was the stunner of a goal by Abu Ismail in the first minute.

The veteran of the pack, Chua Boon Huat, moved down the flank and produced a perfect cross and Abu Ismail finished with palpable relish.

Sterling show

From then on, the Malaysians grouped themselves beautifully to smother all the pressure exerted on them. While goalkeeper, Kumar Subramaniam, came up with a sterling show late in the day effecting a few spectacular saves, it was the deep defence that kept the Japanese under check.

Special praise is due to the work by Ashraf Megat, who made a goal line deflection of an early penalty corner strike by Yamabori.

The Malaysian mid-field consistently clipped the Japanese moves, and the frontline, through individualistic at times, was punchy enough to disturb the composure of Japan’s defenders.

Chua and Selvaraju made repeated inroads to keep up the pressure, but it was a lovely combined work between Tajuddin and Azlan Misron that resulted in the latter netting the second goal.

The Japanese attack, pacy though, came in fits and starts, notwithstanding the fluent runs of Tomomori and Sakamoto.

Only in the last quarter did the Japanese force three penalty corners, but Kumar Subramaniam under the bar was outstanding. His saves from Katayama, Yamabori and Sho Ito were superb.

Sluggish

This was a performance that coach Sarjit Singh can really be proud of. A noticeable measure of sluggishness marked India’s victory over Bangladesh.

True, there was some improvement in the second half, after a solitary goal lead, when five goals surfaced, but the chances wasted were frustrating, and need not be catalogued to save precious space.

That India, dominating almost throughout, had to wait for over 30 minutes to go ahead illustrates the struggle to find the target.

Even assuming the Bangladesh goalkeeper Zahid Hossain was heroic in a few saves, the Indians frittered away quite a handful through sheer flippancy.

Finally, it was Raghunath, playing as a winger who flicked in a cross from Shivendra Singh off a pass from Vickram Kanth.

Baljit rested

India rested goalkeeper Baljit Singh and mid-fielder Bimal Lakra for the match. Ignace Tirkey had a full game as a pivot and functioned effectively.

Some of his clipping forward passes were a treat to behold. It was one such creative effort that culminated in Tushar Khandekar enlarging the lead early in the second half.

Consequent to this goal, the attack gained a modicum of cohesion without a matching finish. Progressively, India put the pressure on the rival to finish the match with a tennis set score, when Raghunath drag flicked the seventh penalty corner. He had a personal tally of two goals.

Prabhjot Singh earned the cheers of the crowd with a spectacular backhander and helped himself with a brace as did Shivendra Singh.

Taken on the whole, India’s show on Tuesday was anything but convincing. The team has 12 points and takes on Thailand in the last encounter on Thursday.

Playing second fiddle for the major part, and even trailing1-2 midway in the second half, Hong Kong recovered to slot two goals, the match-winner coming from Harinder Singh, against Singapore. This was Hong Kong’s first win Pool ‘A’. Hong Kong completed its league programme while Singapore meets Japan on Thursday.

The results: Pool ‘A’: Hong Kong 3 (Guvinder Dhillon, Arif Ali, Harinder Singh Bal) bt Singapore 2 (Saifulnizam, Muhammad Hazmi Bin). HT 1-1. Player of the Match: Arif Ali; Malaysia 2 ( Ismail Abu, Azlan Misron) bt Japan 0. HT 1-0. Player of the Match: Kumar Subramaniam.