Nur Insafi goalkeeper Ezuan Ghazali fends off a shot by a Sapura player in their TNB Cup match at the National Hockey Stadium yesterday. — Picture by Supian AhmadDEFENDING champions KL Hockey Club (KLHC), Maybank and Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) recorded convincing victories on a day Nur Insafi upset last year’s finalists Sapura in the quarter-final first leg of the TNB Cup yesterday.
Sapura were expected to breeze past Nur Insafi but the Penang-based side turned the tables to win 2-1 at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil. It was a surprising result, considering that Sapura had beaten them 7-1 in the Premier League.
And to make matters worse, Sapura captain and former international S. Kuhan was sent off by umpire R. Anbanathan for allegedly using foul language on him in the 48th minute. It was the first red this season. Four players were also sent to the sin-bin for yellow card offences in the match.
Nur Insafi sounded the board after 14 minutes when Damandeep Singh broke on the left to score past Sapura goalkeeper Khairulnizam Ibrahim.
Manraj Singh could have levelled for Sapura but the son of former national coach Sarjit Singh missed a sitter in front of the Nur Insafi goalmouth.
Harris Fadzila Zulkafli scored Nur Insafi’s second goal in the 47th minute before Sapura’s Kuhan received a red card a minute later.
Sapura, however, reduced the deficit through Megat Azrafiq Megat Termizi’s penalty corner attempt two minutes from time.
“Nur Insafi capitalised on our mistakes. This is sports... sometimes you win and sometimes it is just not your day. I need to make changes as Kuhan is suspended for the second leg,” said Sapura coach I. Vikneswaran yesterday.
Two goals each from Hafifihafiz Hanafi and Zulhairi Hashim helped former champions Maybank record an impressive 5-0 victory over UniKL. Engku Abdul Malek Engku Mohd also added his name onto the score sheet after scoring from a penalty stroke.
Despite the huge margin of victory, Maybank coach Wallace Tan said the tie is far from over.
“We scored five because we took our chances well. UniKL are a tough team and we cannot afford to take them lightly in the second leg,” said Wallace yesterday.
KLHC effectively blanked Division One champions SSTMI-Thunderbolt 7-0 with penalty corner specialist Razie Rahim and Tengku Hamad Tajuddin Abdul Jalil scoring five goals between them.
National forward Faizal Saari powered TNB to a 5-1 victory over Yayasan Negri Sembilan (YNS) with three goals in the 21st, 60th and 70th minutes.
Amin Rahim (16th) and Amir Farid Ahmad Fuzi (33rd) were TNB’s other scorers while YNS replied through Shahbaz Ali (69th).
RESULTS — Q-final, 1st leg: Maybank 5 UniKL 0, Sapura 1 Nur Insafi 2, Tenaga 5 Yayasan NS 1, KL Hockey Club 7 SSTMI-Thunderbolt 0.
FIXTURES — Tomorrow: SSTMI-Thunderbolt v KL Hockey Club (KLHA Stadium; 6pm); Saturday: Nur Insafi v Sapura (4pm), Yayasan NS v Tenaga (6pm), UniKL v Maybank (8pm) — Matches at the National Hockey Stadium (Pitch 2) in Bukit Jalil.
