Indications of competition intensifying were clear in the Azlan Shah tournament on Sunday. While India overcame Korea, the Asian champion, in a 3-2 victory to claim its second win in three matches (the first was a draw against China), Pakistan registered a comfortable 6-2 win against China, its first in three games.
By S.Thyagarajan
Late in the evening, Australia, the World Champion, fielding a young, new-look team, grappled with the spirit and system of the local team, Malaysia, to carve out a 2-1 victory. The match winner came in the 59th minute through Matt Goldes.
Messing up with penalty cornersÔÇöseven to be exactÔÇöIndia scored three field goals following well executed moves. The Koreans, relying on the penalty corner hits of Nam Hyun Woo, scored two, the last goal coming after the regulation time. The Koreans forced as many as 10 penalty corners.
Pakistan started off insipid in the first half, allowing China to level twice in the early part of the second. But the team then settled down and fired four goals to end the day with a measure of delight to the new coach, Kwaja Junaid. Zubair and Hassem Khan netted two goals for Pakistan.
Setting up a torrid pace, as is their wont, the Aussies began in style with Christopher Cirello pumping in a penalty corner but the Malays restored parity within minutes through Azlan Misrom.
The results:
India 3 ( Arjun Halappa, Tushar Khandekar, Shivendra Singh) beat Korea 2 ( Nam Hyun Woo 2) HT 1-1
Pakistan 6 (Imran Muhammad, Haseen Khan 2, Zubair Muhammad 2, Rizwan Ahmed) beat China 2 (Yu Yang, Sun Long) HT 2-1.
Australia 2 ( Christopher Cirello, Matt Goldes) beat Malaysia 1 (Azlan Misrom) HT 1-1
Monday's matches: Korea v China; Australia v India; Egypt v Malaysia.
