CWG Hockey: India snatch 3-2 win against Malaysia
As usual, India kept their supporters on tenterhooks before snatching a 3-2 win against Malaysia to provide a fitting finale for the day in the men’s hockey competition at the Commonwealth Games here Tuesday.
The Malaysians were twice in the lead, but failed miserably to capitalise to allow India off the hook in a pool A match that kept the near-capacity crowd at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium on its feet.
Giving a Malaysian perspective, team coach Stephen van Huizen admitted his team was not smart enough to maintain the lead on both the occasions.
His counterpart, Jose Brasa opined that the deep defence was not up to the mark and to an extent, India were fortunate that the Malaysians missed a few more scoring opportunities.
Ultimately, it was left to Bharat Chhikara, the unheralded lad from Haryana to save the blushes for India with a 66th minute strike that gave the hosts a 3-2 edge.
Chhikara slapped home a long hit four minutes from time for the match-winner. Earlier, goals by Dhananjay Mahadhik and Sandeep Singh for India and Hafiz Hanafi and Azlan Misron (Malaysia) had tied the scores 2-2.
Meanwhile, Pakistan stumbled to a 3-0 win against Scotland in another pool A game, but neither team impressed.
Pakistan, seeking to shake off their dismal showing at the same venue in March this year when they finished 12th and last in the World Cup, struggled to get going against Scotland who opted to defend in numbers.
Consequently, Pakistan repeatedly came up against a wall as the Scots put up a stout resistance, but committed a few mistakes that were punished by way of the three goals through Shakeel Abbasi, Rehan Butt and Mohammad Imran.
On the outside pitch, South Africa cruised to a 4-1 win against Canada while New Zealand thrashed a weak Trinidad and Tobago 7-1 in two pool B matches.
The result accurately reflected the one-sided nature of both contests but neither game produced the kind of hockey that made the connoisseur sit up and take notice.
