India 3 Malaysia 1

Results: Pakistan 8 Singapore 0; India 3 Pakistan 1.

THE National Juniors hardly pressed forward but their tactics to defend were still not good enough to stop India from winning 3-1 in their opening match of the Four-Nation Invitational Tournament at the Taman Daya Stadium in Johor Baru yesterday.
Despite the defeat, the Malaysians can stand proud of their performance in the match.
They played well as a unit, unlike previously, but fell behind due to their inexperience in handling the skillful and speedy Indians.
In the first half, the Malaysian lads foiled six penalty corner attempts in the with goalkeeper Abdul Hakim Adnan at his element.
But a defensive mix-up from the Malaysians allowed India to take a lead through Victo Singh in the 35th minute.
Izwan Firdaus Tajuddin turned on the heat with a splendid penalty corner set-piece attempt to equalise for Malaysia in the 44th minute
Three minutes later, Diwakar Ram regained India’s lead with a penalty corner goal.
India scored their third through Karan Jay’s field attempt in the 50th minute.
Malaysia coach K.Rajan said his charges were letdown by defensive errors.
“My boys stood their ground in the first half but India’s relentless attacks broke their momentum. I need to do some work on the defence,” said Rajan yesterday.
“Overall, I’m happy with my charges and they will need to e cautions against Pakistan tomorrow (today).”
Earlier, Abdul Haseem Khan scored four goals as Pakistan romped to a 8-0 demolition of Singapore.
Abdul Haseen scored in the fourth, 26th, 34th and 66th minutes.
Inayat Ullah (eight), Adeel Hussain Syed (23rd), Muhd Toufeeq (61st) and Muhd Umar Bhutta (66th) scored the other Pakistan goals.

STANDINGS
P W D L G A Pts

Pakistan 1 1 0 0 8 0 3
India 1 1 0 0 3 1 3
Malaysia 1 0 0 1 1 3 0
Singapore 1 0 0 1 0 8 0