Malaysia hold India to drab draw

07/01/2003

MALAYSIA... 1 INDIA...1
Izwan Hassan 44th Tushar Khandekar 48th
MALAYSIA played badly against India yesterday and were lucky to share
points when the final whistle blew in the Under-19 Four-Nation
Invitational at the Bukit Jalil Hockey Stadium.
Bad passing, poor judgement and tiredness was on display yesterday, as
Malaysia tried their best to play hockey but could not repeat the same
level of performance they showed aganst South Korea on Sunday.
Skipper Engku Abdul Malek was rested after taking a bad hit on the head
while playing against South Korea on Sunday, said team doctor S. S.
Cheema.
"There was fear of a haemmorage so we decided to rest him for the match
against India. His situation is not too bad, and he might be able to play
against Pakistan on Wednesday," said Cheema.
The armband went to Megat Azrafiq, and together with goalkeeper Khairul
Nizam were the only players who had a good game yesterday, while the
others took things easy and hardly chased for balls.
Malaysia were scrappy, compared to the furious pace against the South
Koreans, but India were even worse and there were hardly any exciting
moves in the first half.
Stephen van Huizen's lads adopted a defensive 35 minutes, and had only
three forwards at any time in the Indian 25-yardline so the chances of
scoring goals were minimised.
But Malaysia did not look troubled, and there were more back-passes and
even the goalkeeper Khairul Nizam was utilised to move the ball from the
right to the left.
And the surprising thing in the match was that all the Malaysian attacks
were mounted from the left side of the field, and the easier right side
was totally ignored.
The first penalty corner was awarded to Malaysia but the set-piece was
easily read by India and nothing came out of it. And Malaysia only won two
more penalty corners in the remaining first half, and both were also
wasted due to poor co-ordination.
India were never in the match and Gurucharn Singh, who scored two goals
against Pakistan on Sunday, was left to roam freely upfront. But he too
was guilty of poor form and hardly troubled goalkeeper Khairul.
The only good move made by India in the entire first half was when
Prabodh Tirkey took a reverse-stick shot at the Malaysian goalmouth and
Khairul made a diving save.
India tried their best to provoke the boys in yellow by poking their
sticks and shoving players while the umpires were looking elsewhere, but
the Malaysian lads kept their cool and only Sallehin Ghani lost his head
and retaliated - but umpire Park Se Yong from Korea was right behind him
and flashed the yellow card in the 30th minute.
Even with 10 players, Malaysia went into the dressing room on equal
terms with India.
The second half saw the Malaysian side still sleeping and were under
tremendous pressure because of some bad pasing. And in the 40th minute,
Tushar Khandekar cracked open the Malaysian goalmouth with a thundering
shot which sailed over the shoulders of goalkeeper Khairul.
That goal woke up the Malaysian side and they mounted a series of
attacks which led to a penalty corner in the 43rd minute. S. Bubalan
pushed towards the goalmouth and Izwan Hassan got the tip of his stick on
the ball to steer it home and level the score.
But the Malaysin team played badly in the remainder of the match and
were lucky that the Indian side were equally bad and shared points when
the horn blew.
"We were lucky to share points with India. But that is to be expected of
a young side new to an international tournament. Give the boys some time
and I know they will mature," said coach Stephen van Huizen.
Fixtures - Today: Malaysia Under-16 v Pakistan (6pm).
Tomorow: India v South Korea (6pm), Pakistan v Malaysia (8pm).
Thursday: Malaysia v Malaysia Under-16 (6pm).
(END)