Harendra fumes as India held by Malaysia to draw

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I am not happy. We cannot miss chances like this in international hockey.

HARENDRA SINGH, Hockey coach

MUSCAT: Chief hockey coach Harendra Singh was left fuming after India missed several chances and were held to a goalless draw by Malaysia in the Asian Champions Trophy in Muscat Tuesday.

India have found the going tough against Malaysia in recent times and the loss in the semi-finals of the Asian Games is still fresh in the memory. On Tuesday, the Indian team again found it difficult to breach the Malaysian defence and wasted several chances. “I am not happy. We cannot miss chances like this,” said Harendra.

Defending champions India have so far been unbeaten in the tournament and registered big wins against Oman, Pakistan and Japan. After the draw, both India and the Asian Games silver medallists Malaysia are on 10 points each from four outings.

Malaysia were down to 10 players in the second half as Tengku Tajuddin was shown the yellow card for a deliberate foul on India captain Manpreet Singh.

But India failed to take advantage of the situation. Nilakanta Sharma missed the target by inches in one of the combined Indian raids.

The Indian strikers were not allowed space to enter the circle until the closing stages of second half, when they forced two penalty corners but could not convert. Malaysian coach Roelant Oltmans said his team faced a tough time when they were down to 10 players due to Tajuddin’s yellow card.

“We came under some pressure in the last phase after the yellow card. Otherwise, the game was more of less what we expected,” said Oltmans, who was India coach before being replaced by Harendra after a string of poor performances.

Indian were off to a nervy start as they wasted several scoring opportunities early in the match. They had a spate of chances, only for Hardik Singh to fritter away a scoring opportunity. Harmanpreet Singh’s penalty-corner flick was blocked by the Malaysian goalkeeper and Mandeep failed to get a touch on a long diagonal ball. It happened twice in the first quarter.

Malaysia created an opening on a counter-attack, but mostly fell back to defend their goal against the Indian strikers.

In the second half, India made several forays but the Malaysian defence stood strong. They held on despite being reduced to 10 players at one point. India next face South Korea.