Malaysia’s junior hockey team failed to replicate their form against Australia as they lost 2-1 to defending champions India in their fourth match of the Sultan of Johor Cup at the Taman Daya Hockey Stadium, yesterday.
Despite beating Australia, the Malaysian juniors found it hard to break India’s defensive prowess as India dominated the game from the get go, forcing Malaysia to adopt a more defensive strategy.
While the score line was 0-0 at half time, India were far more aggresive in the second half and they forced Malaysia into conceding a number of penalty corners.
The strategy paid off as Malaysia conceded both goals via penalty corners through Harmanpreet Singh, who scored twice to make it 2-0 for the visitors.
Malaysia tried to get back into the game but only managed to do so in the final few minutes through Shahril Saabah’s penalty corner.
The defeat forced Malaysia to drop to fifth on the table, having only collected four points and they will face bottom-placed team Pakistan on Saturday.
In other matches, Argentina clinched their second victory of the tournament by beating Pakistan 3-1, while the tournament’s favourite Great Britain were held to a 4-4 draw by Australia.
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