TERENGGANU Hockey Team (THT) virtually qualified for the final of the TNB Cup when they thrashed Maybank 6-1 in the First Leg semi-finals at the Kuala Lumpur Hockey Stadium Wednesday.
In the other semi-finals, Sapura beat Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) 3-1.
The second leg of the semi-finals will be held Friday.
Maybank shocked the TNB Cup defending champions with an early goal, but collapsed in the fourh quarter and need a miracle to make a come-back Friday.
The Maybank goal was scored by Firdaus Fauzi in the seventh minute, but that was as far as the Tigers went.
THT came back with vengeance to score six, and Ismail Abu started the count in the 16th minute. The other goals were scored by Faizal Shaari (44th, 53rd), Ismail (49th), Jang Jong Hyun (50th) and Amirul Mirza Rozi (57th).
As for the second semis, the Sapura goals were scored by Oscar William Wookey (35th), Phillip Ross (42nd) and Gurbaj Singh (52nd). The KLHC goal was scored by Nam Hyun Woo in the 40th minute.
"It was a slow start, but a great finish by my players to take control of the first leg. However, we can't take it easy in the second leg and need to score early goals to keep Maybank out of the picture," said THT coach Sarjit Singh.
Maybank were listless after taking the lead, and even though they had many chances to increase it, they decided to play defensive and were punished for holding on to a one-goal lead.
RESULTS: TNB Cup semi-finals First Leg: Terengganu HT 6 Maybank 1, Sapura 3 Kuala Lumpur HC 1.
President's Cup semi-finals First Leg: TNB Thunderbolts 3 Politeknik 2, UiTM-KPT 4 SSTMI 3.
Vivian Soars Cup semi-finals First Leg: Semi-finals: SSTMI 2 PKS-Uniten 0, Blue Warriors 1 ATM Pernama 0.
FRIDAY -- TNB Cup semi-finals Second Leg: Kuala Lumpur HC v Saura HC (KLHA, 6pm), Maybank v Terengganu HT (KLHA, 8pm).
President's Cup: Semi-finals Second Leg: SSTMI v UiTM-KPT (Tun Razak, 6pm), Politeknik v TNB Thunderbolts (Tun Razak, 8pm).
Vivian Soars Cup: Semi-finals Second Leg: ATM Pernama v Blue Warriors (Ministry of Education, 6pm), PKS-Uniten-KPT v SSTMI (Ministry of Education, 8pm).