Ipoh: Goals from Shilanand Lakra (10’), Gurjant Singh (42’, 57’), Sumit Kumar (48’) and Ramandeep Singh (51′) helped India romp to a 5-1 win over Malaysia in the 27th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup on Wednesday. This win thus enabled the Indians to stay in the hunt for a place in the finals. Faisal Saari scored the only goal for the home team.
India, who are placed fifth with four points would now have to win their remaining game against Ireland by a big margin and depend on other results to have a chance of making it to the final. Malaysia, however succumbed to their second loss but remained third with six points.
The equation is now simple- India would have to beat Ireland by a big margin and expect Australia to beat Argentina. Also, they would require Malayasia to draw against England.
After going down 2-4 to Australia, a different looking Indian side took the field against Malasyia and they did well to score three goals in the last quarter to thrash the hosts 5-1. India, had earlier list their first match to Argentina before drawing their second against England.
Lakra have India the lead in the 10th minute through a Gurjant Singh pass as he slotted the ball into the net past the Malaysian goalkeeper. India went into the break with the lead despite an effort from Malaysia’s Saari in the dying stages of the second quarter.
His continuous efforts in levelling the score finally bore fruit in the second half as he converted the first penalty corner to make it 1-1 in the 33rd minute. But Gurjant Singh once again gave India the lead just before the third quarter. Although the Malaysian goalkeeper made good saves in India’s second penalty corner in the 42nd minute, Gurjant made no mistake when the ball flew to him with an open goal in front.
Sumit extended India’s lead in the match through a simple tap-in, in the 48th minute when Ramandeep Singh crossed a ball from captain Sardar Singh in the middle of the circle away from the goalie.
But Sumit failed to score another as his shot was wide of the point blank range but Ramandeep’s deflection made it 4-1 in India’s favour in the 54th minute.
The final nail in the coffin for Malaysia was Gurjant’s second goal in India’s fifth penalty corner in the 57th minute.
India would face Ireland on March 9.