Malaysia Falls 2-4 to India at Asian Champions Trophy
The Malaysian hockey team’s long wait to defeat India continued on Sunday (Nov 1) following a 2-4 defeat in an Asian Champions Trophy group match. Played at the Olympian Surjit Singh Hockey Stadium in Punjab, the fixture marked the first loss of the tournament for the Speedy Tigers.
India’s captain, Harmanpreet Singh, opened the scoring three minutes into the match, but Malaysia’s Akhimullah Anuar Esook leveled the score in the 25th minute. Harmanpreet reclaimed the lead for the hosts with a penalty corner conversion in the 33rd minute. Sukhjeet Singh then extended India’s advantage to 3-1 in the 43rd minute before Harmanpreet secured his hat-trick and India’s fourth goal from a penalty stroke in the 58th minute. Shello Silverius scored a late reply for Malaysia in the 60th minute, though the effort came too late to spark a comeback.
Prior to this encounter, Malaysia last defeated India during the semi-finals of the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games. The world No. 12 side also recently settled for silver against world No. 8 India following a 5-1 defeat in the final of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
Group Standings and Upcoming Match Against Japan
Despite the setback in Punjab, Malaysia has already secured a spot in the tournament semi-finals by maintaining a top-four position in the six-team competition. Malaysia sits in second place in the standings with nine points after four games, while defending champions India lead the group with 12 points. The national team plays its final group stage fixture against Japan on Monday (Nov 2).
Three wins in three for India in the Asian Champions Trophy league stage 🇮🇳💪Up next for them is the match against Malaysia, who are also unbeaten in the tournament 👀▶️ Here's how the action unfolded: https://t.co/9p8WgAX4eY pic.twitter.com/l1JLHyVbSq
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