Kuantan City: In their last pool match at the 4th Asian Champions Trophy being held at Kuantan City, Malaysia, India outdo Malaysia 2-1 today.
A match in front of a supporting home crowd, Malaysia couldn’t do more than a goal to set the match in their favor; the match started with aggression from both the teams as pace & skills got a major display in a thrilling encounter.
The first inroad onto the scoreboard, however, happened in the 12th minute of the match when Rupinder Pal Singh scored off a rebound after his drag flick into the Malaysian goal post. This happened to be the sole successful attempt to the back of the two goal posts as the teams went for first break with a 1-0 score in India’s favor.
Coming off the break, Malaysia increased their percentage possession of the ball as they got their first inroad and sole one all through the match, two minutes into the second quarter as Razie Rahim scored off a Penalty corner to equalize for the hosts. The drag flick to the back of Indian goal post came off a second successive penalty corner conceded by India within seconds.
This goal brought India to their aggressive tactics as they started pushing towards the Malaysian defense, however no disturbance to the scoreboard happened in the remaining part of the first half. The teams went for mid-way break with 1-1 tie.
Coming out for the other part of the half time, the teams went on with aggression as attempts and counters kept on happening all through the second half. Almost all of these went futile except one within the final two minutes of the match, via a drag flick by Rupinder Pal Singh.
The match was more about aggression without precision or lack of conversion; be it coz of good defense or be it bad attempts as some of these attempts went wide. India won the match 2-1 to go to the semifinals. Another person who held a crucial role in ensuring the win was the Indian Goal keeper Akash Chikte who kept thwarting all the attempts from the host side.
The Semi Finals of the Asian Champions trophy will be held on October 29.