MALAYSIA took an early lead, but then crumbled in the second half to lose 5-3 to world No 1 Australia in the fight for bronze in the 19th Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh last night.Malaysia took the match to the Australian semi-circle from the first whistle, and there was plenty of action in the first half, with most of it coming from the young national team.
Australia won a total of four penalty corners, all resulted from counter attacks, but bungled them all.
Malaysia failed to win a single penalty corner, because the strikers were more intent on taking shots at goal which were cleverly stopped by Australian goalkeeper George Bazeley.
However, in the 14th minute, a super effort from 19-year-old Faizal Saari took him to the top of the Australian semicircle, and he made a deft pass to Hafifihafiz Hanafi who, slammed it into the top of the net for a well deserved lead.
Australia were only dangerous in the final minutes of the half, and off a goalmouth melee in the 34th minute, Matthew Swann scored the equaliser off a reverse stick attempt.
Australia came out of the dressing room with guns blazing, and in a spate of five minutes they had five chances which were stopped by goalkeepr S. Kumar and also the post.
But the world No 1 inserted more pressure and Kumar finally cracked in the 43rd minute when Russell Ford sent in a cracker from the the top of the semi-circle.
And after taking the lead, Australia went on a goal hunt and found their third in the 50th minute when Kieran Govers scored off a penalty corner attempt.
Malaysia were reduced to defending after that. but still the Aussies scored their fourth goal in the 55th minute. This time, Christopher Ciriello scored from their sixth penalty corner.
And the fifth goal was scored with easy by Grant Schubert in the 65th minute, and it started to rain again.
However, Malaysia never gave up and with three seconds to go, Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin scored to narrow the defeat margin.
RESULTS: Final -- India x South Korea x; Third-Fourth: Malaysia 3 Australia 5; Fifth-Sixth: Pakistan 1 China 1 (Pakistan win 6-5 on penalty strokes).
