Malaysia smash India 5-1

MALAYSIA whipped India 5-1 to romp into the Sultan of Johor Cup final in front of a capacity crowd at the Taman Daya Stadium in Johor Baru yesterday.
The hosts will now play Australia, who only edged them 2-1, for the inaugural title today.
Australia looked like they took it easy when they lost 3-2 to Pakistan in an earlier match. It was the Aussies first defeat, but was quite predictable as they were already in the final before playing Pakistan, and there was no rest day to recover if they played all out yesterday.
The Malaysia-India match had all the masala to cook up a sizzling dish, as red and yellow cards flew from the umpires pockets as Malaysia tried to smash the Indian defense early.
It reached boiling point in the 19th minute, when India's Talwinder Singh and Nor Izzat Sumantri got under each other's nerves -- and Talwinder was shown the red card, while Nor Izzat was sent to the sin bin.
India then forced a series of five penalty corners in succession and were duly rewarded as Harpreet Singh flicked home in the 13th minute, when Hazrul Faiz failed to make a clean stop.
But Malaysia took in stride, and won their first penalty corner in the 15th minute, onlt to see skipper Noor Faeez Ibrahim's attempt parried away.
However, in the second penalty corner a minute later, Noor Faeez made amends by flicking in the equaliser which stood until the breather.
India, playing with 10-man, still kept attacking after the breather, but were punished by Malaysia in a 44th minute penalty corner. This time, as set-piece was used as the ball was passed to Izad Jamaluddin on the right, and he duly tucked in to make it 2-1.
And then Syamim Yusof made it 3-1 in the 57th minute while Noor Faeez took Malaysia into the final when he delivered yet again off the eight penalty corner in the 57th minute.
India were demolished further when Shazril Irwan makes it 5-1 in the 61st minute. And to add salt to India's wounds, Harpreet Singh was red carded in the 69th minute.
In another match, South Korea took the lead off Young Dong-Hyeon in the 30th minute, but New Zealand drew level in the 48th minute off a Kane Russel attempt.
But the Koreans were not to be denied full points when Dong-Hyeon scored his brace in the 55th minute.
The Kiwis took out their goalkeeper and played with a kicking back, to capatalise on 11 attacking players, but failed to break the Korean defense.
RESULTS: Australia 2 Pakistan 3, New Zealand 1 South Korea 2, India 1 Malaysia 5.
TODAY: Final -- Malaysia v Australia (8.30pm); Third-Fourth: South Korea v India (6pm); Fifth-Sixth: New Zealand v Pakistan (3.30pm).

FINAL STANDINGS

P W D L F A Pts
AUSTRALIA 5 4 0 1 19 10 12
MALAYSIA 5 3 1 1 13 7 10
S KOREA 5 3 0 2 15 16 9
INDIA 5 2 0 3 14 16 6
N ZEALAND 5 1 1 3 5 11 4
PAKISTAN 5 1 0 4 6 12 3

South Korea in waiting game

If Malaysia lose, India will play in the final. A Malaysia-India draw will see Korea v Australia final.

RESULTS: Australia 2 Pakistan 3, New Zealand 1 South Korea 2, India
x Malaysia x.

FINAL STANDINGS

P W D L F A Pts
AUSTRALIA 5 4 0 1 19 10 12
S KOREA 5 3 0 2 15 16 9
MALAYSIA 4 2 1 1 8 6 7
INDIA 4 2 0 2 13 11 6
N ZEALAND 5 1 1 3 5 11 4
PAKISTAN 5 1 0 4 6 12 3