THE Malaysian women's hockey team beat Queensland 2-1 Friday. They were losing 1-0, but Nuraini Rashid scored the equalsier and a minute before the game ended, Kirandeep Kaur scored the winner.
By Saiful Affendy Sapran
saifulaffendy@nstp.com.my
KUALA LUMPUR: Fifteen-year-old Kirandeep Kaur scored a last minute winner against Queensland for a well deserved 2-1 victory leading towards the Asian Games in Jakarta.
Kirandeep made her national team debut in the Singapore Hockey Series Open end of June, where she scored her first international goal in Malaysia's 6-0 win against Thailand in the final.
It was coach K. Dharmaraj's team's second win in four matches as they won 3-1 in the third frienly and drew 2-2 and 1-1 in the others.
The Malaysian women were losing 1-0, but Nuraini Rashid scored the equalsier off a penalty corner and with 30 seconds remaining on the clock, Kirandeep nailed the winner off a penalty corner rebound.
Dharmaraj was all smiles, and praised his charges fighting spirit.
"Queensland started aggressively as they wanted their first win and took the lead. We had many chances to equalise off field attempts but their goalkeeper was in top form. "
In the third quarter Nuraini finally equalised off a penalty corner which we won after mounting several waves of attacks, and it made my charges more determined.
"And with 30 seconds to end, Kirandeep scored off a penalty corner rebound to seal victory," said Dharmaraj. Malaysia will play their final friendly against Queensland on Sunday.
