Australia drag Malaysia into the final...

AUSTRALIA edged New Zealand 3-2 yesterday to drag Malaysia as well into the Azlan Shah Cup final in Ipoh today.
  With the expected win from the World No 2, Malaysia qualified for only their fourth Azlan Shah Cup final with a match in hand against India, but its not going to be a Sunday walk against the Aussies for Paul Revington and his men.
  The other three finals that Malaysia played in 1985, 2007 and 2009 only produced silver medals on all three occasions. Malaysia lost to India, Australia and India again in the other three finals.
  For the record, Malaysia held Australia 1-1 in the group stages.
  Australian coach Ric Charlsworth, three of his support staff, and player Timothy Bates did not turn up at the stadium yesterday as they were down with food poisoning.
  Graham Reid stood in as coach: "We only had a skeleton support staff today (yesterday) and it looks like Tim (Timothy) might even miss the final."
  On Malaysia, Reid was wary of their counter-attacks: "This is a really fast team, and we have to be on our toes for 70 minutes. What with backing from the capacity crowd (more than 13,000) every match, its not going to be an easy encounter."
  And it was the slowest of starts for Australia in the tournament, as they toyed around with the ball, and even failed to convert the three penalty corners that came their 15 minutes into the match.
  New Zealand started moving out of their own semi-circle with counter attacks, and kept defending the penalty corners that were awarded against them.
  And by the 27th minute, Australia only had five wasted penalty corners to show, but the Kiwis mounted another one of their rare counter-attacks, and Jacob Smith tapped home a square from close range to grab the lead.
  And just as the second half started, the rain also came poring down, and the Australians started singing to their origninal champions tune.
  Jacob Whetton's 38th and 39th minute field goals suddenly turned the tide on the Kiwis, and even before the cheers died down, Australia scored their third.
  And this time, it was Matt Gohdes turn to score a field goal in the 42nd minute.
  The match was stopped for 10 minutes in the 50th mark, as torrential rain flooded the pitch, but after resumption, New Zealand narrowed the score in the 56th minute with a penalty corner attempt from Cory Bennett.
  But it was too late a fightback, and Australia will now make an attempt for their seventh Azlan Shah Cup title against the three-time silver medalists hosts.